'We have to understand that the climate may be changing': US Senator John McCain

 

US Republican Senator John McCain

 US Senator John McCain says Americans should understand the climate may be actually changing, breaking with most of the fellow Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who believe climate change is a “hoax.”

"There are things happening with the climate in the world that is unprecedented," McCain said in an interview on Sunday when asked why Republicans acted as if climate change was not real.

McCain went on to emphasize the importance of nuclear power. "It's the cleanest, cheapest, in many ways, source of power.”

"We have to understand that the climate may be changing and we can take commonsense measures which will not harm the American people,” he added.

McCain's remarks come at a time when Hurricane Irma is pummeling Florida, threatening almost the entire southeastern US state after leaving a deadly path of destruction across the Caribbean islands.

Homes are surrounded by Harvey's floodwaters on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017 in Spring, Texas. (Photo by AP)

The Category 4 hurricane is bringing 130 miles (209 km) per hour winds and is expected to move up Florida's west coast. Officials have urged nearly 7 million people in Florida to evacuate as the storm began unleashing heavy winds and rain on the state on Sunday.

Last month, Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, struck Texas and Louisiana, killing about 60 people and causing property damage estimated at up to $180 billion in the two states.

A US government report has shown that global warming helped fuel the hottest year on record in 2016. The report released last month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also found that greenhouse gas concentrations were reaching a new high.

A study released in July by the Union of Concerned Scientists said dozens of US cities may face chronic flooding over the next few decades if global warming is not mitigated.

The study warned that America's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement could increase the impact of global warming and add to greenhouse gas emissions.

Interstate highway 45 is submerged from the effects of Hurricane Harvey seen during widespread flooding in Houston, Texas on August 27, 2017. (Photo by Reuters) 

Trump considers climate change a hoax

Trump had vowed during the election campaign to "cancel" the Paris agreement within 100 days of becoming president on January 20 in order to bolster the US oil and coal giant, which bankrolled his campaign.

Trump has labeled climate change a hoax, defying widening international support for the Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He has argued that the concept of global warming has been “created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”

On June 1, Trump announced that the US will pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, alarming the science community and drawing widespread condemnations from around the world.

Leading American political analyst and philosopher Noam Chomsky has said that the Republican Party is profoundly committed to destroying Planet Earth.

In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Chomsky repeated the remarks he made in November last year about the Republican Party, calling it the most “dangerous organization in human history.”