Rainn Wilson, the actor best known for playing Dwight Schrute on the long-running and highly successful comedy series The Office, has changed his name to draw attention to climate change. Wilson is on the board of an organisation called Arctic Basecamp, who are trying to address the urgent matter of the Arctic melting at millions of litres per second.
“With the help of my scientist friends at Arctic Basecamp, I’ve changed my name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson,” Wilson said in a statement (via Variety). “This is not a joke, I’m as serious as the melting Arctic, which amplifies global risks including extreme weather events around the globe.”
“I’m hoping this name change brings attention to this growing… er, melting issue. We need world leaders at [United Nations climate change conference] COP27 to take notice and take action. The Arctic is melting at millions of litres per second, yet this problem can’t seem to make a name for itself, so it’s up to us to make a name for it.”
Wilson continued; “Go to ArcticRiskName.org and create a name that will bring attention to this problem. Then – and this is the important part – change your social media profile or display name to match your new ArcticRisk name. And if enough of us do this, then maybe COP27 will be where our world leaders sit up and notice Arctic risks and introduce a solution.”
Wilson played the nemesis of John Krasinski’s character Jim in 188 episodes of The Office – from 2005-2013. The Office’s popularity has only increased since then, with a younger generation finding it on streaming. Since then, Wilson has appeared in action movie The Meg, and in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
Check out our guide to the best disaster movies.