Can someone help me here?

See, I just read this article about global warming. It's not long, so here's the entire thing:

WASHINGTON - The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."

So what I understand from that is that in 1606 (more or less) the earth was as warm as it is today. Then it had to have cooled down, so it could warm up again. Right?

Same thing goes even if it were millennia- it was as hot then as it is now.
Isn't the earth like BILLIONS of years old? How long has man have people been polluting the air with greenhouse gasses?

The question is: During the 70's we were going to all freeze to death because of the new ice age, now we're going to fry to death---------does global warming pay more than global freezing? And who's getting rich off of it?

You may find it interesting to click the link and see the fair and balanced related websites they link to.