Hurricane Michele Bachmann? Groups Hope to Name Storms After Climate-Change Denier
By Alex Brown August 29, 2013 | 7:30 p.m.
Environmental groups have suggested that storms could be named after politicians who deny global warming. (NASA GOES Project)
If a pair of environmental groups get their way, Hurricane Michele Bachmann or Tropical Storm John Boehner could be the next storms threatening to wreak havoc on the U.S.
A new petition, proposed by Project Name Change and 350+ Action Fund, seeks to name storms after politicians who the groups say deny climate change. The groups' website provides a list of the targeted politicians.
Of course, it is unlikely that the World Meteorological Organization will change its naming practices, but the petition has garnered almost 49,000 signatures.
A video touting the plan shows mocked-up weather reports warning that "Marco Rubio is expected to pound the Eastern Seaboard" and "David Vitter is literally lifting boats out of the water and tossing them onto land." The levees "built to stop Hurricane Collin Peterson have been obliterated," says another report.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., one of Congress's most outspoken deniers of global warming, was a major target. "An entire nation is wondering how they'll ever recover from the disaster that is James Inhofe," the video's somber news anchor intones.
In reality, weather officials have been naming storms for decades, and the World Meteorological Organization now uses a six-year rotating list of names for tropical cyclones.
This article appears in the Aug. 30, 2013, edition of National Journal Daily
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