Making Republicans Environmentalists Again

The Republican Party has been almost uniformly opposed to climate action for years – nobody more so than President Donald Trump. But it wasn’t always like this. On today’s episode, we look back at how conservatives came to see the denial of climate science as a kind of badge of honor – and we talk to two conservative activists who are trying to change that.

Want to take action? 

• Check out the American Conservation Coalition and read their American Climate Contract https://www.acc.eco/
• You can find more information at republicEN.org and check out their podcast, EcoRight Speaks. https://republicen.org/
• You can also read the full memo we mentioned in the episode - the Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan (get ready to be mad) http://www.climatefiles.com/trade-group/american-petroleum-institute/1998-global-climate-science-communications-team-action-plan/
• Or listen to the podcast Drilled for a deep dive on the fossil fuel industry’s long misinformation campaign https://www.drillednews.com/podcasts
• Don’t forget to VOTE! Check out vote.org to make sure you’re registered to vote, find your polling station or get information on absentee ballots in your state. 

Want to know more? We have a reading list!

• Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich
• Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes & Eric Conway
• The Republican Reversal by James Turner and Andrew Isenberg
• Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. And if you take any of the actions we recommend, tell us about it! Send us your voice message, ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Special thanks to our guests: Benji Backer, Bob Inglis, Jay Turner and Andrew Isenberg

How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Alex Blumberg.

This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd and Felix Poon. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing for this episode by Sam Bair with original music by Emma Munger. Full music credits are available on our website. 

Our fact checker this episode is Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Rachel Strom.

Thanks to Anthony Leiserowitz for helping us understand some of this history. This episode also relied on phenomenal reporting from a number of places, including the books Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich, Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway, Kochland by Christopher Leonard, Dark Money by Jane Mayer, and the podcast Drilled, hosted by Amy Westervelt. 

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