The rise of ecofascism: climate change and the far right

Abstract

In 2019, Brenton Tarrant released a manifesto describing himself as an ‘ecofascist’, before murdering 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand. Tarrant brought radical-right environmentalism to prominence, and it has been gaining traction worldwide since then. Populist political movements have exploited the escalating climate crisis to promote racism and anti-immigration rhetoric: ‘Plant trees, save the seas, deport refugees’ appeared on campaign signs for the neo-Nazi American Identity Movement. In French electoral politics, Marine Le Pen has cultivated a ‘patriotic ecology’, emphasizing environmental threats against the state. In The rise of ecofascism, Sam Moore and Alex Roberts warn readers of what is to come from these developments. They provide deep and detailed insights into the relationship between climate systems breakdown and fascism. Far-right politics have relied on the protection of capitalism, a system built upon the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels. However, climate action and activism put ‘the structure of capitalism at risk and thus also the social order that the far right is committed to defend’ (p. 4). The book unpacks how climate change offers the far-right a sense of crisis, one that stimulates expressions of ethnic nationalism, racism, xenophobia and antisemitism, and often encourages violent behaviour to prevent or reverse changing social roles. Thus, Moore and Roberts broaden the focus to ‘far-right ecologism’ rather than ‘ecofascism’ to explore the range of attempts to produce or reproduce racial hierarchies through the environment (p. 13).