Since the controversial 2006 Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth, scientific awareness of the harmful effects of climate change has only increased, while concern amongst civilian populations has significantly decreased. Heads up: like all societal issues, ignoring this problem isn’t going to make it disappear. And though the effects of our changing climate haven’t developed intoThe Day after Tomorrow-proportioned disasters, the issue is still barrelling down on us.

It’s 2014––the discussion of global warming has no place for climate change deniers, although it never did. The conversation is no longer about the existence of the problem, and those still focused on disproving its existence should find a new conspiracy to disrupt (did Oswald really act alone?). At the rate the world’s going, deniers are quickly becoming the unicorns of the Noah’s ark story––left behind as the world is irrevocably changed.

Last Sunday, May 12, another name found its way onto the too-long list of scientifically irrelevant and logically underdeveloped pseudo-experts. Twenty-sixteen presidential hopeful Marco Rubio explained earlier this month that he did not, would not, and could not believe that climate change is real, disregardinginsurmountablepilesof data from scientific institutions around the world. Might I repeat that this man plans to run for the presidency? Perhaps not understanding scientific evidence is the first sign this man cannot understand the demographics and intricacies of running a country.

All of this came a week after NASA announced that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting––a climate change marker that cannot be stopped or reversed––once again showing that global warming isn’t stopping to let us bicker about its existence.

Once we leave behind the doubters and deniers, we can regroup and formulate an effective plan to address the ever-growing problem. It’s been 17 years since the proposal of the Kyoto Protocol, the first UN-adapted measure to attack the root problems of climate change, and nearly that long since the United States backed out of the measure. Our nation and other developed nations must prioritize comprehensive environmental restrictions to help reduce our country’s share of the problem.

We’ve spent so much time arguing over the scientific legitimacy of global warming that we’ve overlooked the present decay of our environment. Our climate is changing––meaning our entire world is changing. Let’s resolve to change with it, for the better.