Linking together the Madlands reference to the doco, the image of Naomi Oreskes and "Why So Many Conservatives Deny The Climate Problem: They Hate The Solution ". One segment for the documentary that was filmed but never used was Anna taking Nick Minchin to meet Naomi Oreskes.
Naomi talked to him about 'Implicatory Denial'. Problem A implies a need for solution B. Since I hate, reject, am terrified of, have world view contrary to whatever, B, A can't be true.
Implicatory Denial is at the heart of denialism. And since people might reject the implications for a wide range of reasons, there can be all sorts of deniers. A passionate environmentalist, who cares deeply about all the other bad stuff we are doing to the environment may find the implications of AGW just too much to bear. 'We couldn't cause THAT MUCH damage, that is unthinkable' So AGW can't be true.
While there is certainly a strong component to denial among Conservatives of the 'Capitalism is the Greatest, it can do no wrong!' variety, it is the underlying psychology of how some people can reject the possibility of something because of its implications that is the stumbling block .
Many here on this forum are possibly scientifically trained in some fashion. More importantly we may be comfortable with looking at the world in terms of cause and effect, physics etc. That the world around us is something we 'apprehend' as being deeply a cause and effect thing. If cause and effect means that something is going to happen, how we feel about that fact has zero relevance to whether it will occur - cause and effect rules.
This is not how the human mind actually works! Most people don't think this way, or they reserve these types of thinking processes for specific activities in life. Generally most people see most things about the world around them as if they are an extension of their emotions. Something that feels wrong cant be true.
Look at much religious thinking. Remember Dubya talking about people who have a 'faith based reality', look at the continuing rise of 'motivationalist' thinking - positive attitude training, the idea of having a preferred way of looking at life as if this is a choice that changes things. Look at the widespread acceptance of astrology, luck thinking etc. In the world of broader humanity Astrology is mainstream, Astronomy is weird rubbish.
AGW Denialism isn't some strange aberration. It is actually grounded in human psychology. The surprising thing is that it isn't more common.