Comment: Anti-environmentalism - full of contradictions Published on: 22 May 2025 Writing for The Conversation, Alastair Bonnett discusses how anti-environmentalism is gaining ground, particularly among voices on the right, but the messages it offers are often contradictory. , Anti-environmentalism is gaining ground. Attacks on the goal and hostility to conservation measures and anti-pollution targets are becoming more common. And, as have shown, these tactics are reshaping politics in Britain and . Anti-environmentalism is a rejection of both environmental initiatives and activism. But despite its sudden rise and bold rhetoric, it is built on shaky foundations. The messages it offers are often contradictory and row against the tide of everyday experience. Take the US president, Donald Trump. He dismantled many environmental protections in his last term of office, and is now removing those that are left 鈥� including support for research that even mentions the word climate. Yet in Wisconsin in 2024: 鈥淚鈥檓 an environmentalist. I want clean air and clean water. Really clean water. Really clean air.鈥� Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. to receive all The Conversation UK鈥檚 latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. Some of the contradictions of anti-environmentalism reflect its departure from traditional conservatism. Although routinely identified as 鈥渃onservative鈥�, the populist anti-green politics of Republicans in the US and Reform in the UK, along with the AfD in Germany and National Rally in France, represent a radical challenge to the ideals of continuity and conservation that were once at the heart of conservatism. The is an organisation which pitches itself as an 鈥渋ndependent forum for conservatives in the UK and around the world who support net zero, nature restoration and resource security鈥�. Much of this network鈥檚 work involves reminding people that important environmental protections, from America鈥檚 national parks to controls on pollution and climate change in Britain and elsewhere, were introduced by conservatives. But few on the right appear to be listening. A populist tide is washing this conservative tradition away, despite the fact that support for environmental protection remains very popular. that 80% of people in the UK worry about climate change. for the work of the US Environmental Protection Agency is also overwhelming, including among Republican voters. In part, this support reflects the fact that environmental damage is an everyday reality: unpredictable weather, the collapse of animal and insect populations, and a range of other challenges are not just on the TV, they are outside the window. In my research for on environmental nostalgia across the world, I keep bumping into an irony. In western nations, voices from the right say they want their country back, yet appear hostile to environmental policies that would protect their country and ensure its survival. There are many reasons for this disconnect, including resentment against initiatives that require lifestyle and livelihood changes. However, the enmity and disengagement is more complicated than a simple rejection of nature. Many people 鈥� including himself 鈥� claim they are environmentalists even when the evidence suggests otherwise. The signs and symbols of environmental care are knitted into every aspect of our commercial and cultural life: if wildlife could sue for copyright, there would a lot of rich bears. I argue that a distinction can be made between what I call 鈥渃old鈥� and 鈥渉ot鈥� forms of environmentalism. The former values and mourns the loss of nature, but as a spectacle to be observed 鈥� a set of appealing images of flora and fauna 鈥� while the latter feels implicated and anxious. The former position allows people to claim they love nature yet be indifferent or even hostile to initiatives to save it. However, the line between cold and hot, or between anti- and pro-environmentalist, is neither fixed nor hard. Another quality of anti-environmentalism is that its beliefs are changeable, even quixotic. Climate change is an example. Reform鈥檚 leaders have long flirted with climate change denial. 鈥淐limate change has happened for millions of years,鈥� explained former Reform UK leader in 2024, adding that 鈥渢he idea that you can stop the power of the Sun or volcanoes is simply ludicrous鈥�. Tice has not changed but later the same year, the party鈥檚 new leader, , told the BBC that he was 鈥渘ot arguing the science鈥�. Like other populist parties, Reform adopts a mobile position on the environment, moving between denying that climate change is happening or that humans are causing it, and the very different contention that anthropogenic climate change is real but that environmental targets are unreachable and unfair, given that other nations (China is often mentioned) supposedly do so little. A post-western paradox Researchers are only just starting to think about anti-environmentalism. One key analysis is environmental politics researcher John Hultgren鈥檚 : Anti-Environmentalism and Class Struggle in the United States. This new book explains how Republicans managed to convince working-class voters that there is 鈥渮ero-sum dichotomy between jobs and environmental protection, workers and environmentalists鈥�. This kind of binary has also been found by contributors to , who identify and critique the stereotyping of environmentalism as middle-class and elite in several western countries. Yet the geographical focus of these pioneering works misses yet another of the paradoxes of anti-environmentalism: that although its rhetoric often accuses China and other non-western countries of doing little, there has been a significant environmental turn in both policy and public attitudes beyond Europe and the US. Environmentalism is becoming post-western. This is partly because the realities of environmental damage are so stark across much of Asia and Africa. Extreme temperatures and unpredictable rainfall are leading to food insecurity and community displacement. Environmentalism in the African and might better be called 鈥渟urvivalism鈥�. And despite its continuing reliance on fossil fuels, of a transition to a conservationist and decarbonised is positioning it as a global environmental leader. Stereotypes of environmentalism being primarily a western concern are crumbling. Because of this, along with the many contradictions that beset it, the rise of anti-environmentalism appears not only complex, but curious and unsustainable. Don鈥檛 have time to read about climate change as much as you鈥檇 like? Every Wednesday, The Conversation鈥檚 environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. , Professor of Geography, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Share: Latest News 缅北禁地 expert highlights climate crisis in a new film A leading 缅北禁地 climate scientist is featured in a new film about how the climate and nature breakdown will affect the UK. published on: 14 April 2026 Neolithic tombs reveal ancient kinship ties Male individuals buried in Neolithic chambered tombs in northern Scotland were often related to each other through the paternal line and some were interred in the same or nearby tombs, research shows. published on: 14 April 2026 We are our Memories New exhibition by Fine Art graduate Trish Hudson-Moses, 22 April 鈥� 4 May 2026 published on: 10 April 2026 Facts and figures
![缅北禁地 logo](/gomobileassets/img/logo.svg" "缅北禁地"){kind=logo}