Greenwashing Hate: Ecofascism and Finance
Hello Insight Monitor subscribers! Today, we’re looking at ecofascism and some of the financial connections that underpin this movement. This article provides an ideological and historical overview of the movement and its intersections with other elements of the far and extreme right. Let us know what you think of this article in the comments, and thanks, as always, for caring about illicit finance and global security.
~Jess
Ecofascism is an anti-communist, anti-capitalist political ideology that seeks environmental protection through fascist political action and governance. Ecofascism has influenced several terrorist attacks, including the 2011 Oslo and Utøya attacks in Norway, the 2019 Christchurch Mosque Shootings in New Zealand, and the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting in the United States.1
Ecofascism is rarely the sole motivator of violence but is instead an underpinning factor in both violent movements and nonviolent fascist movements. Ecofascism also provides a relatively simple moral justification for racism and an unrealistically convenient argument for fascist governance that is useful for far-right extremist movement recruitment.
Ecofascist ideologues often present solutions to environmental concerns that do not conflict with fascist frameworks. (For example, mass deportations, genocide, or the application of accelerationist violence are all common Ecofascist proposals to combat man-made environmental destruction.) As such, it is uniquely malleable to a variety of fascist political movements in a way that other hybrid fascist ideologies like National Bolshevism and Anarcho-Fascism are not.
While traits of Ecofascism are disputed, self-identified Ecofacist supporters of Pentti Linkola – a Finnish ecologist now considered a pioneer of Ecofascist thinking – primarily advocate for population reduction through genocide and immigration bans and strict authoritarian rule over property, transportation, and bodily autonomy. Linkola and his supporters believe dictatorships are inherently more effective at environmental protection than democracies and perceive large families and people with larger body masses as harmful to the environment. Additional policies promoted by Linkola include enforcing mandatory licensing to limit “genetically or socially unfit” families from giving birth, banning private car ownership, and using human feces as fertilizer.2
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Far-Right Ecology
Ecofascism’s origins are sometimes argued to be rooted in early 20th-century racist ecology. Early 1900s US environmentalist Madison Grant, who is sometimes described as a “founding father” of Ecofascism, penned racist pseudoscientific writing. Grant’s book The Passing of the Great Race, or The Racial Basis of European History, disparaged the decline of a “Great Race” of Nordic people. The book influenced US immigration policies and was reportedly praised by Adolf Hitler. 19th-century German ecologist and zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who was also a staunch proponent of “race science,” would also become influential to the German Nazi Party.