‘The Office’ star Rainn Wilson changes name to bring awareness to climate crisis
Identity theft is not a joke — and neither is the climate crisis.
Rainn Wilson is so serious about bringing awareness to the fallout from global warming, he changed his name.
The “Office” star, 56, now goes by Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson — at least across his social media platforms.
The actor announced the new moniker via Twitter and Instagram Wednesday in an effort to highlight the rapidly melting Arctic region (which he noted is shrinking by millions of liters per second) and its catastrophic global effects.
Arctic weather change, he insisted in a selfie-style video, “is not just bad news for the Arctic — but for us, too.”
“As a cheap little stunt to help save planet Earth, I’ve changed my name on Twitter [and] Instagram,” he explained, noting that his goal is to “help tell the world leaders and influencers that we need to act now.”
Wilson, a vocal environmental advocate and board member of Arctic Basecamp, said he’s reached out to “lots of folks in show business” to encourage them to do the same.
“It’s fun. It’s free,” he explained, asking his followers to go to ArcticRisk.org and follow in his footsteps.
Wilson’s announcement was timed to the 27th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as COP27, which is taking place in Egypt until Nov. 18.
Though neither his Instagram nor his Twitter handle reflects his updated moniker, Wilson tweeted, likely jokingly, that new Twitter CEO Elon Musk is to blame for the latter.
“P.S. THEY WON’T LET ME CHANGE MY NAME BECAUSE, ELON!”