Climate change:

Since the creation of this planet, we've always been undergoing climate change.  The earth heats up, the earth cools down, over and over.

The current debate is whether the greenhouse gases that society is emitting is having an adverse affect on the climate - specifically, increasing the average temperature of our planet - melting the polar ice caps, and changing weather patterns.

Based on the science shows that I watch, there are three things that affect the temperature of our planet:

 - The current energy emissions from the sun.  The sun goes through cycles where it emits greater and lesser amounts of energy (heat).  Believe that this is the most significant factor on our planetary temperatures.

-  Planetary changes.  Such planetary events as volcanoes and changes to ocean currents have a very significant effect on the temperature of our planet.  Believe this is the second most important factor on planetary temperatures.

- Greenhouse gas emissions caused by people.   Fossil fuel emissions that occur when humans utilize fossil fuels for energy.  Believe that this is the third most important factor (least important) on planetary temperatures.

My guess, yes, our greenhouse gas emissons are probably having at least a small effect on the planet's temperatures, and therefore could indeed be affecting the polar ice caps and the weather.  NOTE:
Actually, under the right circumstances, our greenhouse gas emissons can be a positive - they could help ameliorate (offset) a cooling trend (based on sun/earth cycles) if such were taking/about to take place.

The thing is, that even if we are causing the planet to gradually heat up, we can't do anything about it at this time for the following reasons:

     -  We can't afford to:  We have a snowballing deficit, a pathetic GDP growth rate, and a possible recession in the offing.  This country cannot afford doing anything that would increase energy prices either now or in the near future.  Such would just exacerbate our economic problems.

     -  We can't control third world countries:  Third world countries will increasing be using more and more fossil fuels.  Although we might be williing to bankrupt ourselves into cutting back our emissions, there isn't anything we can do to decrease the energy emissions of other countries - particularly third world countries who will increasingly need more and more energy to grow their economies.

Recommendation:  Provide grants to state of the art research centers/colleges, and aggresively pursue research into nuclear fusion.  Prizes could be offered that even someone working out of their garage could win.  NOTE:  If we could figure out nuclear fusion, we could solve the world's energy problems AND curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

Side note:  Providing funds to the Solyndra's of the world just throws money (money that we don't even have) down the proverbial black hole.  A Solyndra is not competitive with the same sort of companies where cheap labor resides (like in China), and, even more impotantly, they are not competitive with less the expensive fossil fuel utilization.  The government should not be picking winners and losers between businesses.