It's an old deception technique of climate change denialists to try to paint global warming as an apocalyptic cult. Unlike for faiths, however, there's strong backing evidence for warming and the acidification of oceans as well as the effects it has on extreme weather events and the consensus is that the main factor are human emissions. And unlike for apocalyptic cults, there are advanced solutions, since the causes are pretty well understood and it's not about fatalism but about improving the living conditions of future generations. The problem is the eternal corporate blockade, including the pushing of disinformation and this type of denial, of government corruption to protect their market and prevent actual mitigation efforts. Other disinformation claims that any alternative is only promoted for commercial interests. There's also "too late" disinformation that admits the science but proposes that there's nothing we can or should do. Much of it has been adapted from the tobacco industry. Because of that, there's even the outlandish claims that more emissions are actually good.
Then the argument about cult leaders is also self-defeating. While there may be popular people in relation to science or activism, scientific facts don't rest on personalities. That's also a trope of creationists who pretend that Darwin is a type of saint, when reality is that he helped to introduce the scientific community to new facts that are much better understood today. For instance, in his time the genetic code wasn't even discovered, yet it has confirmed the basics of his Origins of Species, corrected it and permitted a much better understanding of how evolution works.
This reminds me that the demonization of Faucci was also ridiculous, because he was simply following the science and the reasonable mitigation strategies that were available. Assuming that it wasn't him, there'd be plenty of competent people who would have done the same. He also had to deal with Trump's stupidity, other than the COVID denialists and the effects of the Russian disinformation targetting the ignorant. For instance, we now know that while their 1% claim is likely exaggerated, they've pushed anti-vaccine disinformation. Also remember that they didn't have access to vaccines with the same effectiveness that we did and that it's part of New Generation Warfare for Putin to weaken his opponents with disinformation and promote chaos. And he's not the only one, domestic extremists also do, like Bannon, Turning Point USA, Gosar and company, etc. Fox News, Newsmax, Real America's Voice, a number of "think tanks"...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/16/russia-disinformation-discord-leaked-documents/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/26/gettr-guo-wengui-social-media/
