Climate denial
The amount of carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases such as methane, in the atmosphere has increased greatly in the last century or two. It is resulting in a rise in average global temperatures, resulting in change to ecosystems and to sea level, as glaciers and ice caps melt.
Those whose living is tied up with industries which emit carbon dioxide will need to invest a lot to stop doing so. In some cases whole industries have to stop. It is natural that they would resist these changes, and demand a lot of proof if forced to make these changes.
Unfortunately, the Earth’s climate is a hugely complex thing and definitive proof that human activity is increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide has taken a long time to assemble.
This has given a window of time for ‘climate deniers’ to argue that human activity is not to blame.
As the weight of evidence has risen over the last decades, outright climate denial has decreased, but it has morphed into delay. The position has become ‘yes, we will need to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, but not yet’.
Also, unfortunately, recently some political parties on the right have seen some advantage in espousing these views.