Old Fascism in New Green Clothes

Two terror attacks in the name of ecofascism just this year: Those leaning to the far right have discovered the possibility of capitalizing on climate change fears.

A 21-year-old opened fire on customers in the Walmart store in El Paso on Saturday, and in minutes killed 20 people. Jordan and Andre Anchondo, parents of three who were back-to-school shopping, were two of the victims. Jordan died while she was protecting the couple’s two-month-old son from bullets.

Just before the execution, the perpetrator posted a manifesto on the internet, explaining his motives: ”My whole life, I have been preparing for a future that no longer exists,” he writes. The solution is therefore, according to his twisted logic, to stop the environmental threat from overpopulation by throwing out immigrants from Latin America. He doesn’t believe that the United States will carry out the necessary steps to combat the climate crisis, if the country is not ethnically homogenous … white.

Ecofascists Behind the Massacres in El Paso and Christchurch

This is the second act of terrorism in the name of ecofascism, in this year, alone. The man who murdered 49 people in cold blood at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March also called himself an ecofascist. These two people are part of a growing online movement.

The roots of ecofascism go back to the early 20th century German youth movement, Wandervögel, which mixed romanticizing nature and criticizing industrialization with nationalism. In 1933, part of Wandervögel turned into Hitlerjugend. The Nazis’ almost mythical idea about ”Blut und Boden” — Blood and Soil —suggests that the people (the blood) have a connection and inherited right or ownership of the country where they live (the soil).

To ecofascists, blood and soil go deeper than simple nostalgia for a beautiful homeland. They argue that all people have evolved to live only in their specific place, and that immigration, therefore, threatens this sensitive ecosystem.

This is reminiscent of the view of certain radical environmental activists, that the earth would be a better place without humans; that all human activity is disrupting the fragility of the ecosystem, and that for the sake of the environment, it would be best if humans stopped reproducing. However, in the ecofascist version, the parasite is not all humanity, but certain (non-white) groups.

‘Inferior’ People Should Not Be Allowed To Have Children

One of the movement’s ideological leaders, Finnish philosopher Pentti Linkola, argues that democracy does not work, and that the only way to successfully face the environmental threat is through strict dictatorship. He also argues for mass killings to stop overpopulation, a return to a medieval standard of living, as well as a ban on “inferior” people producing children.

Ecofascists like to cite Linkola, who sums up their perverted ideology succinctly: “What to do, when a ship carrying a hundred passengers suddenly capsizes, and there is only one lifeboat? When the lifeboat is full, those who hate life will try to load it with more people and sink the lot. Those who love and respect life will take the ship’s ax and sever the extra hands that cling to the sides.” (“Can Life Prevail?” Pentti Linkola, 2009)

Climate activists should watch out. Ecofascists like to infiltrate the environmental movement. Those leaning to the far right have realized one must capitalize not only on the financial vulnerability of people, but also on their fear of climate change. Racism may have been washed green in the form of environmentalism, but it remains just as dangerous.