Sometimes these crackpots are people of high social status (well, sort of...)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/nov/14/science...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/nov/14/science...
The previous English minister for energy and climate change (Matthew Hancock) is a climate change denier who refuses to discuss anything related to climate change and who accepts large donations from other prominent climate change deniers.