Jacob and Mignal - hurling insults will not strengthen your arguments.
Dr Phill - try the link above.
On climate change - we know the climate is changing. It always has, and it (probably) always will. We know from historical temperature data that climate is currently warming. Since thermometers have only been around since the 17th century, actual temperature data (in climate history terms) is very recent. However, we know from historical, environmental, archaelogical and geological research that climate has been both warmer and cooler than it is today - it was warmer during the Roman occupation (they had vineyards in Northumberland), then cooled during the Dark Ages, then warmed during the early Middle Ages, then cooled (regular ice fairs on the Thames in the 17th century - the last was in 1805) and is currently warming. Overlaying this cycle is a thirty-year warm-cool cycle, in which we are currently in a cooling part of the cycle. We also know that, on a more geological timescale, we are in a warm inter-glacial period, and the current one is longer than some others have been. So far, we do not fully understand what drives these overlaying cycles of climate change.
If the cycles above continue (and we don't know whether they will or not) climate will continue to warm for about a century or so, then flatten out and cool to a low in the middle to end of this millenium, and then start warming again. We don't know when we will slip into another ice age, though I remember this being the 'climate scare' of choice when I was a nipper. We may still be heading towards another ice age, for all I know.
How much, if at all, mankind's activities are influencing climate (either locally or globally) is not proven. Evidence is put forward supporting both the 'yes' and 'no' camps, the former receiving the majority of the publicity, research funding and political support at present. Hence the comment about scientists saying the 'right' things to get their funding - I don't believe scientists are telling outright lies, but in order to stay in a job, and hence pay the mortgage, they have to toe the current political line, since that's where the majority of the funding comes from, and it's allocated on the basis of supporting the proposition that the climate is being driven by man's activities. I suspect that will gradually change as the evidence to support that proposition is balanced by evidence that doesn't, but it may take a while.
Some people have called the climate science 'concensus' a scam. I'm not sure this is right - I suspect that early scientific research, imperfect as it was bound to be in the early stages, showed cause for concern. As the science has progressed, the evidence is showing that the depth of concern is less warranted. There have been some notable mistakes along the way - the 'hockey-stick' graph, for example - which arguably shouldn't have happened.
Current climate changes are not outside known historical norms (despite shrill assertions to the contrary from some quarters). We do not know all the factors that drive those changes, or understand their interactions. Consequently, the computer models currently used to predict the climate's future have to viewed with some caution. The predictions they made some years ago have already been shown to be wrong by actual subsequent events (they predicted accelerated warming, but the climate cooled instead), and the scientists cannot explain why. It would be unwise (as Dr Phill poined out in a previous post) to rely on such small time-scales to prove points, but if the models are so spectacularly wrong in the very short term, what confidence can one have in their long-term accuracy?
In summary - climate has always changed, and probably always will. We do not know (yet) what drives these changes. We do know that the changes we are currently noticing are not historically unusual (despite shrill claims from some quarters), and we do not know whether mankind's activities are having an effect. Many people choose to believe various scenarios, but nobody actually knows.