Environmental activists in the US have launched an online campaign urging the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to name hurricanes after politicians who are dismissive of climate change.

The WMO usually attributes first names to the storms in alphabetical order from the beginning of the season, and alternates between male and female names each year.

But the campaigners have drawn up a list of American politicians they say deny climate change and obstruct climate policy.

They want the destructive storms to be named after them instead.

Names on the list include Texas governor Rick Perry and speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner.

Daniel Kessler is with the campaign group 350 Action, which is behind the tongue-in-cheek idea.

But he is not hopeful it will be successful in altering the naming convention.

"There are a number of people who refuse to accept the basic science of climate change which is now understood by every scientific academy in the world to be occurring and to be caused by man," he said.

"We wanted to highlight in somewhat of a satirical way their intransigence and make sure that people know that they're obstructing progress."



The United States has been hit by powerful hurricanes in recent years.

Last year Hurricane Sandy brought New York to a standstill and killed more than 100 people, while in 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and left almost 2,000 people dead.