Building resiliency to ecofascist radicalisation: Preventing an emerging threat

Since the 2019 and 2022 terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, El Paso, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, both mainstream media and scholarly interest in ecofascism have increased significantly. This policy brief will illustrate how the contemporary far- and extreme right are exploiting the climate crisis and reviving white supremacist environmentalism. Specifically, it will identify recurring linguistic patterns, which construct ecofascist grievances that link environmental degradation to ‘old’ conspiracy theories, such as ‘global Zionism’ or ‘white genocide’. It will also identify the eco-accelerationist solutions white supremacists propose to the climate crisis. The policy brief concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings for building resiliency to ecofascist radicalisation.