There is a bit of a difference.
Human activity has been going on for a long time and the world hasn't ended yet. These activities are for man's purposes of survival. I'd put that in the same category as beavers building dams since man is a creature of nature. I'm not giving license to pollute indiscriminately, but CO2 is a natural gas not a pollutant.
These schemes to "save the world" are another thing altogether. They are engineered to intentionally change the environment and are huge wastes of money too. Did these people ever think if they were wrong (as I believe they are) that engineering a system to turn the environment colder would result if it being too cold? I don't believe it is within man's power to change the climate by conventional (nonnuclear) methods, but if they really believe we are dangerously warming the planet, they had better be really certain before they hatch a scheme like this on large scale. It also had better be paid for out of the rich environment pimp pockets (ie Gore, DiCaprio, Crow, David, and all the rest of the Hollywood-Environment Complex).