( CNN ) Well , the Senate says climate change is n't a hoax . Phew . But are we causing it ? Oh no-no-no , says half the Senate . Forty-nine senators ( full list here ) voted on Wednesday against an amendment that said climate change is happening and , crucially , that it 's actually-for-real caused by human emissions . That 's something scientists are pretty darn sure about , and have been for more than a decade . These votes -- particularly the not-a-hoax vote -- have been heralded by some in environmental circles , including Sen. Barbara Boxer , D-California , as a sign of progress , like a `` coming out '' party of sorts . At least the senators are going on record , the argument goes . At least , in a 98-to-1 vote , they said , in public , that climate change is not a hoax . I 'm not so sure . True , there would be value in knowing where every senator stands on climate change . Americans -- 61 % of whom say climate change is real and 40 % of whom know it 's caused by people , according to to a 2014 Pew survey -- have a right to know where their elected officials fall on this and many other important policy issues . But -- and this is an important `` but '' -- that 's not what we learned on Wednesday . We learned that 98 senators say climate change is happening -- without blaming humans for it . Among them is Jim Inhofe , R-Oklahoma , who is perhaps Washington 's most vocal climate denier . He continued that streak this week . `` Climate is changing , and climate has always changed , and always will , there 's archaeological evidence of that , there 's biblical evidence of that , '' Inhofe said on the Senate floor , according to Bloomberg News and others . `` The hoax is that there are some people that are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change climate . Man ca n't change climate . '' Helpful , huh ? We also know that 49 senators voted against the amendment saying climate change is , in fact , caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases . That could seem like a win for the left , at least an effort to pin down senators who do n't buy the science saying humans do contribute . But among the no votes was Sen. Lisa Murkowski , R-Alaska , who said her reason for voting no simply was the word `` significantly , '' according to The Hill . ( The amendment said `` human activity significantly contributes '' to the warming climate . ) That 's an artful dodge . And it means neither vote offers true clarity . These votes are more witch hunt than substance . The political left seems to want to embarrass the right for denying the facts of climate change . The right , as Elana Schor of Politico smartly noted , played this brilliantly , appearing to take a the-Earth's-not-flat stance on this , while actually ceding next-to-nothing . Meanwhile , the people we actually need to be listening to on this issue are not the politicians . They 're the climate scientists , who have been saying for years that the climate is changing , that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the driving cause , and that we need to act urgently to cut emissions . I hate doom-and-gloom climate politics as much as the next guy , but that 's the reality . And here 's the other part of it : There 's time to act . Congress should debate how to respond to climate change , not its very existence . The other voices that need to be heard in this debate are those of ordinary people , all over the world , who already are seeing their lives and livelihoods disturbed by warming temperatures and changing oceans . I met some of them last year at a 300,000-person climate rally in New York . They 're people like Bren Smith , this oyster farmer in Connecticut . And Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner , a young mom from the Marshall Islands , in the Pacific , whose nation may be sunk by rising sea levels . `` I am fearful , '' she told me , `` but for the most part , I 'm optimistic . '' Congress could take note , and so should we . We should listen to their stories . Listen to the science . Debate the solutions . And skip the rest . It 's mostly hot air .
John Sutter : Senate 's climate vote is mostly hot air . Politicians should be debating solutions , he writes .