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🗞️ Driving the news: Renowned meteorologist Guy Walton has started naming US heatwaves after oil and gas corporations in an attempt to name and shame them for their role in the climate crisis
• Walton, with his blog and climate-focused children's books, named this summer's heatwaves Amoco, BP, and Chevron
🔭 The context: Walton has established his own criteria for naming heatwaves, based on duration and severity, similar to hurricane categorization
• He has a list of 20 oil and gas companies and will switch to coal companies if he exhausts the list
🌎 Why does it matter for the planet: Walton seeks to highlight the connection between extreme heat and the fossil fuel industry's actions exacerbating the climate crisis
• He hopes that weather forecasters and the media will amplify this effort, stating, "I don’t think we need to pull any punches. If it causes consternation, so be it."
⏭️ What's next: Despite the deadly impact of heatwaves, there is no standardized naming system, unlike hurricanes: Walton's initiative seeks to change this
• However, the World Meteorological Organization maintains it has no plans to alter the current approach, citing the lack of an agreed heatwave definition and potential misdirection of public attention
💬 One quote: "Any kind of extreme weather should be named after the fossil fuel companies. It’s a brilliant way to bypass media silence and denial, and get the message to the public. We are in a climate emergency, and the fossil fuel industry is to blame" (Margaret Klein Salamon, executive director of the Climate Emergency Fund)
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