Who are you talking to? It sounds like your raving against a perceived "thought leader" that does not exist in this comment thread.
Take for example Penn Jillette. He was a fellow at the Cato Institute. One of their big positions is that climate change is not a thing. As of 2008, he was espousing the position of the institute, that there was not enough information on it. Today, he says that it's pretty clear that it is now happening, but back then, they didn't have enough evidence and didn't do a good enough job of convincing people like him.
But he has to convince himself of that because otherwise, the Cato Institute used him, not for his ideas, but simply because he has influence.