I probably shouldn’t even be writing this because the debate should be long gone at this point.

Nevertheless, the discussion of whether climate change is a real thing and whether human activity contributes to it continues to somehow be a controversial topic with two sides to the argument and now here we are.

Let’s start with the obvious point. The global climate is in fact getting warmer. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Earth’s average temperature has risen 1.5 degrees in the last 100 years. Additionally, it is expected to rise between 0.5 degrees and 8.6 degrees in the next 100 years. A 1.5 degree increase seems small, but that small difference is having big consequences. The New York Times reported that the drought issues in California two summers ago were enhanced by 15 to 20 percent due to human-contributed climate change. The Times also reports that sea levels are currently rising at a rate of about one foot per century due to rising sea temperatures and melting ice, which translates into heavy dollars being spent fighting erosion on the coasts and much more severe effects if that rate continues.

Now, what concerns climate scientists is not the fact that the climate is changing. Yes, it is true that Earth’s climate hasn’t stayed the same since day one. Concern is coming from the rate of climate change and the absurd increases in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere along with other greenhouse gases that are accompanying this change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the last 650,000 years have varied between 180 parts per million during cold glacial times and 300 ppm during hotter times. These levels have risen rapidly over the last 50 years and now stand at 379 ppm. Changes this drastic generally are supposed to happen over the course of thousands of years, not over the course of less than a century.

 If we’re going to trust anybody to know what in the world is going on with the climate, it would likely be climate scientists, right? One would think. NASA reports multiple scientific journals showing that 97 percent or more of “actively publishing” climate scientists agree that human contribution to climate change is “extremely likely,” and yet the debate continues. It is both irresponsible and illogical for us to sit here and claim to know more about what is going on with climate change more than the people who have dedicated their lives to the work.

Climate change deniers and skeptics have used the common line of defense that there was once “scientific consensus” that Earth was flat and cigarettes didn’t cause health problems. There’s a glaring problem with that line of argument, however. Those were theories based on ignorance and assumptions, not based on science.

Critics have also cited that global temperatures haven’t increased in the last 20-plus years. Here’s a fact that exists, according to NASA and NOAA, 2014 was the hottest year on record since records began in 1880. A year later, 2015 was the hottest year on record, and then 2016 was the hottest year on record. Sixteen of the top 17 hottest years have come in the 21st century. This past January was the third-hottest January on record, behind January 2016 and January 2007. According to CNN, Earth hasn’t had a record cold year since 1911. Please tell us more about these stagnating global temperatures.

Another common defense is the old argument of jobs. How could we possibly do away with fossil fuels and force all of those 2 million Americans employed by the fossil fuel industry out of a job? Yes, 2 million people, as reported by OilPrice.com in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a considerable amount of people, but let’s consider something else. According to Fortune Magazine, solar and wind industries are creating jobs 12 times faster than the rest of the American economy. Jobs in those fields have grown at a rate of around 20 percent for the past few years and they currently employ over 4 million people in the United States. New and growing industries produce a lot of jobs, and shifting our energy system from fossil fuels to renewable sources opens up a lot of doors that have previously been closed.

Grim predictions have been given for this planet if human emissions of greenhouse gases don’t decrease significantly. As ice continues to melt, sea levels will continue to rise and could force people out of some of the biggest coastal cities on the planet. This has already begun to take shape in Bangladesh where, as reported by The Guardian, 50,000 people travel to the capital city of Dhaka every month because their villages are becoming uninhabitable as a result of rising sea levels. CNBC reports that parts of Northern Africa and the Middle East could be literally uninhabitable by the end of the 21st century due to rising surface temperatures, causing a refugee crisis that would absolutely blow the current crisis in Syria out of the water.

Climate change is presenting an increasingly serious threat against current and future generations of inhabitants of Earth, and we need to keep one thing in mind. There is no backup Earth.