Beyond Climate Denial
White Supremacy and the Growth of Nationalist Environmentalism on the Right
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.23634Keywords:
alt-right, apocalypticism, climate denial, conspiracy, eco-fascism, immigration, nationalism, right-wing environmentalism, whiteness, evangelicalAbstract
Much of the analysis of right-wing environmental thinking and religion in America has, understandably, focused on the history of climate change denial among evangelicals. However, this narrative is incomplete. I identify areas of shared ideology shaping new coalition building on the right, such as growing anti-immigration sentiments drawing on environmental and eco-fascist rhetoric as well as the rapid growth of apocalyptic conspiracy movements that feed on anxieties about the future, in particular a future made more uncertain by the encroaching realities of climate chaos. I argue that underpinning these ideologies is a kind of faith in a particular organization of power informed by a shared ideology of whiteness, which ascribes to a fundamental ordering of society threatened by climate action. In the face of rapidly escalating climate catastrophe, the marriage of environmentalism, nationalism and white supremacy may prove increasingly appealing to those across the spectrum on the American right.
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