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Bush clearly does not, or did not at that time, accept it as an established scientific finding that human activity was affecting the earth's climate.

I am curious about your thoughts on this. It is my understanding that is a certainty that the global climate is changing but the contention that human activity is contributing to it is still just conjecture.

It is hard to find out much information about global climate change as it is so highly politicized so I would welcome your thoughts on the matter.

From my understanding, the global climate is always in a state of flux - not too long ago (1800's?) we had a little ice age. From research I've seen, the climate of the earth routinely alternates between a ice house and a hot house environment.

It is my understanding that is a certainty that the global climate is changing but the contention that human activity is contributing to it is still just conjecture.

No, it might have been conjecture 10 years ago, but it isn't any more. We know atmospheric CO2 and other gases are increasing, we know they have greenhouse-like effects, we can make reasonably close estimates of the size of the effects, we know the earth is warming, and we can therefore estimate the fraction of the warming that is due to human activity. It's not a question of 'if' any more, it's how much.

Personally, I think this is a good thing. Over geological time, the earth has mostly been hotter than it is now, and the levels of CO2 much higher. The last million years have been unusually cool, and it's not impossible anthropogenic global warming has saved us from an ice age. Just because we're behind a fair chunk of climate change, doesn't mean climate change is a bad thing, and all the cures I have seen are far worse than the disease!

At the same time, we should be formulating policies to deal with the local consequences of climate change. For example, the proposal to rebuild New Orleans is asinine. Not only are hurricanes likely to become more severe, but the sea-level is rising, and the city itself is sinking. In ten years there won't be a levee high enough to protect it.

The problem with all this stuff is that environmentalists have historically been such chicken-littles that a sober, unemotional debate about climate change is impossible. That should start with whether there's anything we can do about it, and whether it's something we want to stop.