Admittedly it's a bit hard to explain but they were going off on a global-warming-is-an-Al-Gore-Conspiracy rant. They have a zero sum mentality. Improving the earth "for nothing" is unacceptable because there's no tangible reward right now, only improvement that would happen generations down the road, long after they are dead.

That's at least how i think their mental gymnastics goes, enabling the true meaning of what I said to sail right over their head.