{"id":68642,"date":"2024-08-05T10:55:26","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T08:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=68642"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T10:36:03","slug":"book-excerpt-the-truth-about-eco-fascism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/68642\/book-excerpt-the-truth-about-eco-fascism\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Excerpt: The truth about Eco-fascism\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African climate justice activist and Greenpeace International Content Editor Angelo C. Louw is breaking ground in the environmental space. His film and literary projects unpack the intersections between race, gender and climate. He shared with us an excerpt from his new book, <\/em>The Problem with Black People, in which he discusses the dangers of eco-fascism, often disguised as environmentalism. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

(<\/em>Trigger warning: this article refers to a number of racist and violent ideas which it also refutes and debunks.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\"Louw
Louw with a copy of his book at its launch this year.
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

“Covid is the world\u2019s way of balancing out this overpopulation,” they say. “People should stop having so many babies. There are already too many people in the world, it just cannot handle the strain.”<\/p>\n\n

In my time with the environmental movement, I\u2019m sometimes left shocked and grossly offended by the ignorance, and casual racism, displayed by some of my peers in the name of saving the planet.<\/p>\n\n

“Human beings are the problem, we should all die,” sits right there at the top of the list. <\/p>\n\n

Using the environment as a pretext for racist and eugenic ideas<\/h2>\n\n

Let me explain. They don\u2019t mean all humans when longing for this mass extermination<\/a>, they mean human beings having babies at a \u201cdisproportionate rate\u201d. And with a general lack of access to healthcare in the global majority, let alone access to family planning and reproductive health [and a relatively tiny carbon footprint] they are referring to us: the Black and Brown people of the world that they assume are destroying it with our sex lives. (This adds a whole new dimension to the hypersexualisation of people of colour,<\/a> but that\u2019s a whole other discussion altogether.) <\/p>\n\n

This thinking is so rife within the movement that thought-leaders have even coined a term for it: eco-fascism. It is an ideology blaming the climate crisis on overpopulation, immigration, and over-industrialisation. According to Vice,<\/a> eco-fascists think we could partly remedy these problems through the mass murder of refugees in Western countries. Oh, and by spaying people of colour like dogs, evidently.<\/p>\n

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@greenpeace_international<\/a> Some fantastic books by black authors to read during #BlackHistoryMonth<\/a> (and beyond!). Anything from the list you have read? #ClimateJustice<\/a> #SocialJustice<\/a> #booktok<\/a> #bookrecommendations<\/a> \u266c Countless – Official Sound Studio<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n