Introduction
In recent years, extremist ideologies have exploited climate change-driven instability, using environmental issues to justify violence. Terms such as “ecofascism” and “green nationalism” have gained attention, promoting aggression to protect resources and seeking chaos to hasten societal collapse through ideological dissemination across online platforms. This fusion fuels a dangerous narrative that frames ecological disaster as inevitable, demanding extreme (and often violent) action. This Insight will explore the ideological underpinnings of ecofascism and discuss how encrypted platforms, such as Telegram, have enabled its spread to recruit followers. Further, it will examine how environmental concerns have been co-opted into violent far-right extremist worldviews.
The Rise of EcoFascist and Green Accelerationist Online Narratives
A common narrative among Violent Right-Wing Extremist (VRWE) actors is that the solution to climate change is to stop immigration and eliminate non-Western and non-white ‘overpopulators’ who are harming the environment. This line of thinking is rooted in ecofascism, a reactionary ideology combining ecological and fascist arguments to justify violence against people who are considered destructive to the ecosystem.
Modern ecofascism combines ecological philosophy with antihumanism and an accelerationist stance. Political researcher Alex Amend has defined it as “the devaluing of human life, particularly of populations seen as inferior, in order to protect the environment viewed as essential to White identity.”
The need to preserve the ‘purity’ of land and its people from outside contamination is ingrained in the Nazis’ “blood and soil” mantra, suggesting that a racially determined nation (blood) is tied to its living environment (soil).
Figure 1: “Blood and soil” motto shared on an ecofascist Telegram group.
Ecofascism, as well as numerous extreme nationalist movements, such as the Base and Atomwaffen, share ideological traits with Accelerationism. Since the late 2010s, global networks of neo-fascists, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and white supremacists have progressively used the term “accelerationism” to refer to right-wing extremist goals, including the “acceleration” of racial conflict through violent actions. The desire is to catalyse society’s collapse to form a white ethnostate. In such a context, climate disasters provide fertile ground for accelerationism, with extreme elements perceiving environmental calamity as a vehicle for unrest.
Ecofascism inextricably aligns with this eco-accelerationist concept. The accelerationist ideology advocates for maximal violence and social breakdown, frequently employing primitivist anti-civilizational motifs in its propaganda, which match with the ecofascist imaginary. Ecofascist propaganda has fueled violent acts in recent years, including the Buffalo (2022), Christchurch and El Paso (2019), and Pittsburgh (2018) shootings. The Buffalo gunman called himself an “eco-fascist,” blaming immigration for environmental harm. Similarly, the Christchurch shooter wrote in his manifesto about the threat of invaders and overpopulation harming the environment. The El Paso attacker echoed this sentiment: “If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable.”
Moreover, in one far-right forum on Discord, leaked by Unicorn Riot, a member describes how a person could easily go from an eco-fascist viewpoint to an accelerationist one, quoting: “Those who subscribe to an eco-fascist world view, are increasingly calling for violence against whose whom they believe pose a threat to the environment. […] This perceived threat most often comes from Jews, whom eco-fascists believe care only about making money, even at the cost of the environment. As such, the Siege pill (accelerationism) may follow the green pill (eco-fascism).”
A combination of eco-fascist ideals and accelerationism promotes a return to a natural environment free from industrialisation and perceived non-white ‘pollution.’ Ecofascist accelerationism argues that accelerating the collapse of the current system is crucial to save the Earth’s biosphere and pave the way for establishing a new society.
Figure 2: “Return to nature and beauty, reject the concrete jungle,” from an extremist Telegram group.
To ‘accelerate’ the total and immediate collapse of today’s societies, lone wolf extremists are expected to spark a race war that will exterminate all non-whites and so-called race traitors.
These ideologies, while still fringe, have already had their test runs.
The Green Brigade
Established VRWE groups, such as The Base and the Proud Boys, have merged white supremacy with eco-fascist subculture in their online communications. Online, the eco-fascist subculture coexists with the ‘Terrorgram’ community and shares the same milieu as Siege culture. For years, fascists have attempted, and occasionally succeeded, in infiltrating eco-movements, exploiting their themes for extremist ends.
One such example is the Green Brigade, an ecofascist offshoot of The Base, formed on a Discord server. The group described itself as “an organisation of openly accelerationist, Eco-Extremist members committed to dismantling the system that exploits our land, animals, and people.” The Green Brigade later shifted its online operations to Telegram, including the now-deactivated “Eco-Fascist Central” channel, where its visual communication strategy evolved, relying on memes aligning with ecofascism. It launched on 6 November 2019 and, with 1,156 subscribers on its Telegram channel, dissolved on 19 March 2020, following the disappearance of key members, including its founder. There is minimal evidence that the Green Brigade is still operational; it is regarded as defunct. While it may have been divided or rebranded, it is no longer visible as an organisation under the same banner; however, its visual aesthetics and intellectual rhetoric remain on other ecofascist forums.
This eco-extremist community highlights the ideological flexibility of online forums by neither openly embracing the extreme right nor prohibiting such perspectives. The Green Brigade’s brand of ecofascism, which centres on preserving the planet for the white race, has been gaining traction within the far-right ecosystem and fomenting violence. In fact, Green Brigade members appear to have carried out at least one incident, the arson of a mink farm in Sweden. The Base also served as a link between serial founders of smaller organisations and the larger community of neo-fascist accelerationists.
This group is of interest because it provides one of the few instances to date in which those associated with such online endeavours are linked to offline criminal activity.
As digital platforms continue to evolve, so too do the means of spreading eco-extreme ideas.
Telegram As A Means For Eco-Fascist Propaganda
The “Pine Tree Twitter” discursive network is a prime example of how eco-fascists use online platforms to spread their ideology and attract new followers. It originated with the Pine Tree Party, founded by Mike Ma (a pseudonym) on Instagram in November 2017. The party is named after a pine tree image captioned: “THE PINE TREE PARTY // Revealing the flag of my new movement. Rejecting the lower world, embracing nature once again.” Users then adopted pine tree emojis in their usernames and bios to identify one another.
Figure 3: Screenshot of the Pine Tree Party original post on Instagram.
During that time, Manavis’ (2018) New Statesman article reported on the rise of an online community of “nature-obsessed, antisemitic, white supremacists” on Reddit and X (which was then Twitter). Eco-fascist activity later shifted primarily to Telegram, where the Pine Tree Party channel, launched in 2020, became among the first major channels to emerge within this subculture.
Figure 4: Screenshot of a conversation dated 5th February 2025 from an active ecofascist group on Telegram.
The original movement was based on the conviction that racial purity is essential to prevent environmental disasters. It used a visual culture rich in Nordic rune symbols, natural landscapes, and Norse mythology. It was making direct calls for radicalisation, urging followers to adopt aggressive and extremist rhetoric in support of the eco-fascist cause, glorifying militant accelerationism and occupying a grey area between Siege-Culture and Ecogram. Nonetheless, the Pine Trees are the most well-researched ecofascist group.
The fringe eco-fascist subculture on Telegram constitutes the clearest manifestation of contemporary eco-fascism, sitting close to neo-Nazi and accelerationist networks and attracting the most radical supporters of far-right environmental politics.
Broadly, eco-fascist propaganda represents a melting pot of various ‘green’ tendencies from across the far-right ecosystem, unified by nostalgic anti-modernism and anchored in the belief in a natural order. Eco-fascist propaganda employs a distinctive visual and symbolic language, combining radical nationalist elements with idyllic visions of a world without environmental destruction, presented in a more attractive and urgent form.
Figure 5: Nordic symbolism connected to the message “protect mother nature.”
Telegram ecofascist channels contain a variety of recurring themes that can be divided into two categories: ecofascist grievances and ecofascist remedies. Ecofascist grievances associate environmental degradation with white extinction, mass immigration, multiculturalism, and so-called global Zionism. Ecofascists have proposed solutions to the climate crisis that range from restricting immigration and deporting non-white minorities to proposing genocide and eco-acceleration.
Figure 6: Screenshot from an active ecofascist Telegram group.
Aspects of such propaganda orient recipients toward lifestyle issues, urging them to distance themselves from new technologies and modern society in general. In some cases, these Telegram groups include “shoot refugees” at the end of phrases such as “help more bees, plant more trees, clean the seas” to pervert current environmental themes.
Similar memes juxtapose such slogans against images of armed men wearing skull masks (an accessory popularised by AWD). Within this context, naturalistic images serve as non-verbal visual cues aimed at triggering a racial response—a process dubbed “racial priming.” The large amount of propaganda featuring acts of violence increases recipients’ tolerance for brutality and the likelihood of aggressive behaviour, inspiring lone perpetrators to commit crimes.
Figure 7: “We find a variety of antagonists on all sides trying to silence our efforts,” from an active ecofascist Telegram group.
In parallel to visual propaganda, these channels also serve an educative function for the milieu, as they offer online libraries and reading lists with dozens of texts written by “green” Nazis. These introduce viewers to far-right authors who discuss nature, overpopulation, pollution, and eco-fascist ideas, while also linking to reading lists that provide context and offering tips on “eco-sabotage.”
Potential Future Strategies
The public far- and extreme-right engagement on platforms like X and Telegram suggests a possible future avenue for the mainstreaming of eco-fascist ideas. Similar patterns are identified across these online places, where new users are often guided toward even more extreme ideologies.
Despite its online presence, the eco-fascist community’s lower profile has allowed its in-group language, visual cues, and symbols to evade scrutiny and algorithmic removal on mainstream platforms.
One major threat of far-right rhetoric on the environment is how it might shape public perceptions of climate change policies. Radicalisation is more likely when environmental issues are incorporated into violent extremist discourse, especially among youth. Understanding how climate change manifests in extremist ideologies is crucial to addressing it, requiring additional data to gauge its scale.
- Recommendation algorithms should be adjusted to reduce the visibility of eco-fascist content, and AI models could be trained to identify eco-fascist narratives through keywords, images, and symbols. Moreover, posts spreading eco-nationalist, conspiratorial, or anti-immigrant content ought to be deprioritised, and fact-checking pop-ups need to be used to counter disinformation.
- Enhancing human moderation is also crucial, as collaboration with researchers trained to spot ecofascist talking points is fundamental in monitoring new radicalisation trends in environmentalist forums. Moreover, cooperation between researchers and tech platforms is critical since extremists often use coded language, memes, and sarcasm to evade AI detection.
- Similarly, AI-detecting tools should be improved to monitor image-based propaganda, such as memes, infographics, and aestheticised nature worship associated with far-right themes, and detect warning signs and keywords.
Aline Blanchard is a Research Analyst/Project Coordinator for Monitoring Jihadism Project. Previously, she completed an internship at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, conducting research and supporting activities on countering chemical terrorism. Her professional expertise lies in policy-oriented analysis, project support and coordination, with a specialization in transnational organized crime, jihadist radicalization, extremism and CBRN terrorism. Finally, she holds a MSc in International Security Studies offered jointly by the School of International Studies of the University of Trento and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa. LinkedIn