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The GOP is the Party of Climate Change Denialism
How Republican politicians have avoided taking action against climate change and preserving the environment
Nature conservation and climate change initiative was not always such a partisan issue in American politics. Theodore Roosevelt was a staunch conservationist, preserving 200 million acres of wildlife during his time in office. Richard Nixon established Environmental Protection Agency and passed both the Clean Water and Clean Air Act; Ronald Reagan signed the Montreal Protocol; and George H.W. Bush strengthened the Clean Air Act.
After Bush Senior left office and Newt Gingrich became the most powerful Republican politician, the party moved much more quickly towards climate change denialism. By the time George W. Bush was elected, the GOP party had taken significant steps backward on climate science. Before Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement that was negotiated during the Obama years, Bush Junior refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which was negotiated during the Clinton years, as an international effort to curb carbon emissions. It is also worth noting that two out of three of the past Republican presidents made millions of dollars in the oil industry (and Dick Cheney was still CEO of Haliburton when Bush Junior asked him to be his running mate in the 2000 presidential election).
