There is one misguided notion that if someone is not receiving large sums of money, that they would not have motivation to maintain a lie that is spread to the masses. Money can cause this, but there are other factors.
Remember Christine Blasey-Ford? Many people pointed out her book deal as a motivation for her bullshit rape accusation against Kavanaugh, but there is something else that is a stronger motivation: national attention as a "hero" who was "brave" in telling her story.
Whether or not she profited from this lie is not important to me. What I see as more important is that she was upheld by the leftist media as someone who was courageous and amazing.
Just think what would happen if she actually succeeded in stopping Kavanaugh from being on the Supreme Court. She would be lauded even more than she already is. And she would know that it was her that caused Kavanaugh not to get on the Supreme Court. Money cannot buy that sort of thing.
If you have been studying a field of science your whole life, you have devoted a lot of time and effort into your work. And if you notice anything that does not seem quite right with the premise that humans activity affects the climate drastically? Well, are you going to risk ruining any career prospects going forward by sticking your neck out? Most likely not.
They may be making a living with this field, but it is hardly about the money when you are not really making a significant amount.
So rather than contradict what "the science" would say, they go along to get along. And I know for a fact this can happen because we saw exactly what happened with the Wuhan virus bullshit. Do you think most of the people carrying out all the bullshit policy decisions were doing so because they were getting great kickbacks? No, it was because they were either too scared to be defiant or too shortsighted realize it was all bullshit.
Would that same thing not make sense with climate scientists?
A wildly different example of keeping a lie going but not for the money is with climate science. How much bullshit are we being told decade after decade that this time, we are all going to be past the point of no return and that we have to act now or else we are all doomed? Quite a bit. But is that really all for the money? I am not so sure about that.
I speculate that the problem is that those in that field are in too deep be making any waves against the current prevailing narrative.