Entrenched interests and global warming deniers
There are many entrenched interests who benefit from the current energy infrastructure of our modern civilization. Commonly mentioned "villains" are oil companies (as well as their complicit politicians) who would stand to lose a lot of money if action were taken to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere, as this would imply a reduction in the use of fossil fuels such as oil. But consumers are "the other half" of the same problem and (for example) US drivers have been very resistant to an increase in petrol (also known as "gas" in the colonies) taxation.
Consequently, interests have spent a vast amount of cash[16] in an effort to discredit the science behind man-made global warming, and encourage global warming denialism.[17] ExxonMobil has been one of the prime movers and a recent Greenpeace report stated:
“”ExxonMobil’s campaign to fund “think tanks” and organizations that spread misinformation about the science and policies of global warming is now widely known. The company’s multimillion dollar campaign has undoubtedly contributed to public confusion and government inaction on global warming over the past decade."[18]
Greenpeace is still monitoring ExxonMobil's attempts to distort public opinion in this area as can be seen in their website exxonsecrets dedicated to exposing the company's activities.
The disinformation campaign is similar to that embarked on by the tobacco companies who wished to persuade people that cigarettes were healthy,[19] and the campaigns carried out by the oil companies when they wished to continue adding lead to petrol.
As a result of the actions of Exxon and others, many wacky global warming conspiracy theories have been invented. These conspiracy theories vary from the weird to the humorous.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Global_warming_denialism