We’ve heard it from President Obama with his advocacy for the Clean Power Plan. We’ve heard it from the two leading presidential Democratic candidates with their plans to switch to alternative energy in the near future. Climate change is real and greenhouse gas emissions are its root cause. So, it makes sense that well-informed political figures are pushing for the country to stop relying on fossil fuels for energy (notice I said well-informed; the rest must not only be deniers of climate change but also deniers of the very forces that make our world function).

Not only does debate exist between those who believe in climate change and those who do not, there is debate between potential methods of dealing with climate change. For example, during the CNN Democratic Debate in Brooklyn, New York, while Secretary Hillary Clinton openly supported establishing state-specific targets to reduce carbon emissions through the Clean Power Plan, Senator Bernie Sanders stated that he wanted carbon emission reduction to happen faster through a carbon tax.

In reality, this isn’t a debate between Democrats and Republicans, or environmentalists and industrialists. We should not be investing so much time into trying to compromise on personally preferred methods of combating climate change.

While political decisions are indeed crucial to the stability of the government, the real issue is that we are avoiding the science behind solving our energy crisis -- not the science that declares climate change real, but the science that shows us how to fix it. But believe it or not, we’ve had the insight to accomplish the latter since the 1960s. We just haven’t pursued it.

Fifty years ago, scientists had hope for our country’s reliance on fossil fuels. After all, our infrastructure is highly invested in fossil fuel s-- namely coal-based power plants; taking these away would put cities and towns in a financial crisis. The solution? Scientists designed a method of capturing carbon dioxide within coal based power plants and storing it underground, thereby allowing these cleaner power plants to remain. This method is known as CCS, or carbon capture and storage.

So what ever happened to CCS? Precarious policy support has pushed it out of sight and out of mind. Today, individuals seldom consider CCS as a solution to climate change, even though in practice it is the most feasible procedure compared to switching to alternative energy.

Thus arises yet another conflict. Do we stop relying on coal because of it's harmful pollutant properties and switch to alternative energy? Or do we invest in breakthrough CCS technology that can help prevent these pollutants from reaching our lungs? John Thompson, director of the Fossil Transition Project for Clean Air Task Force agrees with the latter, claiming, “While eliminating all fossil fuels makes for a great bumper sticker, it’s not a real-world solution at this point.”

We are in desperate need of real-world solutions, especially with the recent report of the climate change-induced extinction of a mammalian species.

Fortunately, solutions are gradually coming to fruition: Boundary Dam in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and The Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi both run on coal while ultimately producing cleaner energy. Not only are the plants environmentally friendly, but they bring an exceptional return of investment. Boundary Dam captures and stores “90 percent of the 1.1 million metric tons” of pollutant gas the power plant emits, according to an article in National Geographic. And Kemper County Administrator Andrew Smith claims that the county saw “$8.12 million in tax revenue” from the Kemper plant alone.

Our search for the best solution to climate change does not stop here -- it cannot stop here because science isn’t about settling. Science is about continuing the search for a better solution and optimizing our current solutions.

Spend time reading about this science versus politics conflict. Learn about the benefits of CCS, the drawbacks and what would really happen if we got rid of our fossil fuels. This climate change debacle cannot be solved unless our country acknowledges and appreciates scientific voice.