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Against Environmentalism for the Common Good: A Theoretical Model

Earth for AI: A Political Ecology of Data-Driven Climate Initiatives

Agrarian Climate Justice as a Progressive Alternative to Climate Security: Mali at the Intersection of Natural Resource Conflicts

Farmers’ Upheaval, Climate Crisis and Populism

While the fight to reverse climate change enjoys broad support from progressive forces, the attitudes of those on the right are often more ambivalent. There’s no shortage of climate change denialists, of course. But there are also many discourses that, instead of minimizing the risks posed by climate change, seek to mobilize them to advance other right-wing agendas. These can include limiting migration or defending tradition, embracing markets or restricting democratic governance.

As a result, the struggle to reverse climate change acquires sinister undertones. It becomes lumped with right-wing projects, many (but not all) of them of the populist variety – and “populist” here spans phenomena such as “technocratic populism” and “populism of the elites.” 

Drawing on Syllabus knowledge-curation infrastructure, we are mapping these discussions. As a start, we have clustered some of the ongoing conversations into six distinct themes (each further divided into three subtopics). This, of course, is not a definitive or exhaustive list. But we do think it’s a reasonable place to begin exploring these debates.

For each subtopic, we have included pointers to some of the readings we found most stimulating. We are also conducting interviews with prominent voices in these debates, and will be updating the relevant sections accordingly. 

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Adrienne Buller on green capitalism and the pitfalls of climate finance

An interesting side-effect of the fight to reverse climate change is the extra legitimation it has bestowed upon the idea of the market as a set of reliable and efficient solutions to the problem. We have identified three distinct entry points to better understand this climate-induced “market imagination.” They have to do with the notions of “green economy,” “green neoliberalism,” and “green industry.” You will find recommended readings for each in requisite Reading Lists.

Resources on Green Economy, Neoliberalism, and Industry, and a conversation with Adrienne Buller

Green Economy

Green Industry

Green Neoliberalism

Benedetta Brevini on the AI sublime bubble – and how to pop it

The notion of the “techno-fix” – the dream of clean, efficient, and bipartisan solutions to contentious and seemingly intractable issues – has received a major boost in recent debates about reversing climate change. Of course, not all such discourses are explicitly or intentionally from the “right”; the politics of eco-modernism, for example, can be quite ambiguous. Yet, as techno fixes rarely inquire into the composition of problems they are supposed to be solving, there’s often an anti-democratic tinge to them. We have clustered some of the relevant discussions into three Reading Lists: those dealing with “engineering” of various kinds (solar, geo, etc.); those tapping into the eco-modernist imaginary; and those that explicitly or implicitly evoke techno-solutionist themes.

Resources on Engineering, Eco-Modernism, and Tech Solutionism, and a conversation with Benedetta Brevini

X-Engineering

Tech Solutionism

Eco-Modernism

Aron Buzogány on the full spectrum of environmental populism

Bernhard Forchtner on climate obstruction beyond denialism

Debates over how to deal with the problem of climate change have amplified some of the traditional themes of the right, while redefining others in new ways. From reinforcing the notion of the powerless nation state under attack from “globalist” institutions and left-leaning scientists, to scapegoating migrants, conservatives have framed climate risks as an opportunity to advance their existing agendas. Those on the extreme far-right end have also toyed with the ecofascist temptation. We have tentatively grouped these debates into the categories of Nationalism, Migration & Race, and The Far Right. Each section contains pointers to recent readings that we have found illustrative of these discussions.

Resources on Nationalism, Migration & Race, and the Far Right, and conversations with ‪Aron Buzogány‬ and Bernhard Forchtner

Nationalism

The Far Right

Migration & Race

Jason W. Moore on the dangers of Prometheanism

A certain segment of the right – the one most likely to dabble in populist discourse –  has always been bothered by technocratic and managerial expertise. The global efforts to fight climate change, driven as they are by scientists and international bureaucracies, have predictably rekindled many of these critiques. Not all of them are, strictly speaking, of the right – especially those that point to the depoliticization that comes with framing some climate issues as strictly technocratic and managerial. We have tried to account for such subtleties while clustering this discussion around three core areas: Expertise & Technocracy; Justice; Against Anti-Politics.

Resources on Technocracy, Justice, and Anti-Politics, and a conversation with Jason W. Moore

Expertise & Technocracy

Against Anti-Politics

Justice

Jaime Vindel on the aesthetics and culture of fossil modernity

The consequences of climate change will – or, some cases, already are – messy, which gives the right an opportunity to reinforce another key discourse: the need to ensure law and order. Here is one more case of the climate issue giving new life to longstanding themes in the conservative imaginary. But some of the other traditional talking points are getting a new twist – as in some of the recent arguments insisting that democracies will prove incapable of dealing with the climate problem, and that more centralized, authoritarian governance is needed. We have clustered these debates in three groups: Securitization; Green Crime; Authoritarianism.

Resources on Securitization, Green Crime, and Authoritarianism, and an interview with Jaime Vindel

Securitization

Authoritarianism

Green Crime

Melissa Moreano Venegas on extractivism, patriarchy, and bourgeois environmentalism

Fears related to the disruptive consequences of climate change are already fueling a number of fringe communities, many of them veering to the right. Some want to defend traditional lifestyles and masculinity; others embrace a prepper mentality, insisting that the apocalypse is inevitable and that drastic measures must be taken immediately. It’s yet another example of the second-order effects of climate change on conservative and right-wing discourse. We have clustered these debates in three groups: Lifestyle & Nostalgia, Masculinity, Survivalism.

Resources on Nostalgia, Masculinity, and Survivalism, and an interview with Melissa Moreano Venegas

TheSyllabus

The Right Climate

As a result, the struggle to reverse climate change acquires sinister undertones. It becomes lumped with right-wing projects, many (but not all) of them of the populist variety – and “populist” here spans phenomena such as “technocratic populism” and “populism of the elites.”

For each subtopic, we have included pointers to some of the readings we found most stimulating. We are also conducting interviews with prominent voices in these debates, and will be updating the relevant sections accordingly.

Market Imagination

Techno-Fix

Nation & Race

Experts & Elites

Security & Order