‘How did we get here?’: documentary explores how Republicans changed course on the climate

In The White House Effect, now available on Netflix, archival footage is used to show how the US right moved from believing to disputing the climate crisisIn 1988, the United States entered into its worst drought since the Dust Bowl. Crops withered in fields nationwide, part of an estimated $60bn in damage ($160bn in 2025). Dust storms swept the midwest and northern Great Plains. Cities instituted water restrictions. That summer, unrelentingly hot temperatures killed between 5,000 and 10,000 peo