In the 1950s, when evidence started coming out that smoking tobacco was harmful to people's health, the tobacco industry could have taken its profits and started investing in other crops that the farmers could grow and the companies could make money on. Instead, the companies fought tooth and nail for decades because the profits were too good and "we've always made money this way".
Right now, oil companies, coal companies, companies like Koch Industries, etc. could take their profits and start investing in alternative energies, training their workers in new skills, and remain in business for a long time to come while actually doing good at the same time. Instead, they dig in, invest in politicians and fancy advertising campaigns to persuade us how wonderful they are, and in delaying and stalling tactics because the profits are too good and "we've always made money this way".
It's a shame and people in poor countries will suffer for it.