> hot weather has happened before

Obviously, which is why it is called climate change. It doesn't mean "there were no hot day ever before", it means "there will be way more hotter days, and on average they will be significantly hotter".

Pick up any recent newspaper and look at the number of "hottest month X in recorded history" articles, or "once-a-decade heat waves happening 4 years in a row" ones. That's climate change.

> the ridiculous prediction that the polar ice cap would melt by 2014

Have you tried going skiing recently? Where did the glaciers go?

Pick up any recent newspaper and look at the number of "hottest month X in recorded history" articles

Those are always lying. They didn't look far back enough, because that would require a lot more effort than they're willing to; or actually, one should wonder whether they're deliberately being manipulative.