Grifters taking advantage of a problem for personal gain doesn't mean that the problem doesn't need to be addressed, does it?

There are some people that will manage to profit from the addressing of it. Others will profit from ignoring the issue or even outright refusing to admit it's an issue at all.

I know which side I'd rather be on.

Destruction of the environment is the core business of all the super rich, to counter your point. Obtaining "alpha" or maximizing profit by externalizing pollution costs was and still is essential to manufacturing and resource extraction.

If you statement were true, there would have always been a carbon tax and we would have had wind power 70 years ago, battery and solar technologies would have been developed 30-40 years sooner.