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"We don't know for certain. Right now, based on
evidence we've accumulated, we believe that we're in a
rare temperate plateau between normally hot and cold
extremes, and that we're accelerating in a slide towards
the hot state."

Correct, the point is we don't know what is going to happen.
Imagine if we wrecked our economies and placed billions
in misery only to find out this:

Russian scientist predicts global cooling
MOSCOW, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A Russian scientist predicts a
period of global cooling in coming decades, followed by a
warmer interval.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov expects a repeat of the period
known as the Little Ice Age. During the 16th century, the
Baltic Sea froze so hard that hotels were built on the ice
for people crossing the sea in coaches.

The Little Ice Age is believed to have contributed to the
end of the Norse colony in Greenland, which was founded
during an interval of much warmer weather.

Abdusamatov and his colleagues at the Russian Academy of
Sciences astronomical observatory said the prediction is
based on measurement of solar emissions, Novosti reported.
They expect the cooling to begin within a few years and to
reach its peak between 2055 and 2060.

"The Kyoto initiatives to save the planet from the
greenhouse effect should be put off until better times,"
he said. "The global temperature maximum has been reached
on Earth, and Earth's global temperature will decline to a
climatic minimum even without the Kyoto protocol."

Correct, the point is we don't know what is going to happen. Imagine if we wrecked our economies and placed billions in misery only to find out [about global cooling].

Agreed, to an extent. I wholly agree that allocating the quantities of mankind's effort to the kind of reforms that the environmentalists advocate is a huge, huge mistake, especially if they intend to put the power of government (i.e. the use of force) behind them.

Rather, I take a quintessentially capitalistic approach to this whole thing. If you really believe that the Earth is warming, then rather than screaming your head off like a little sissy about it, invest in beachfront property in Nevada. Buy futures in tropical-friendly foodcrops. Sell off your time-share in Honolulu. Put your money where your mouth is!

The whole point of having a human brain is to use it, with some modicum of reliability, to predict the future. You can't guarantee that the sun will rise tomorrow, but that's certainly the way to bet! You don't know that winter will follow fall this year - maybe some heretofore unknown gravitational wave of gargantuan proportions will fling the Earth backwards in its orbit! - but fall is still when you should harvest and store your crops.

So, insofar as we can use our brain to process the information of our senses, some people "know" that the Earth's temperature is rising. And if that's their knowledge, then they should damn well act on that knowledge, just as someone who knows that winter is coming should start harvesting their crops in fall.

P.S. Interesting articles about that Russian guy and about the solar storm cycle!