When extreme right lone actor terrorists expressed environmental concerns in the manifestos related to attacks in Christchurch (2019), El Paso (2019), and Buffalo (2022), it rightly sparked a lot of attention. The media landscape, from Vice to The Guardian, expressed interest in this phenomenon, so-called ecofascism. Within academia, the phenomenon sparked debates: was this really the perpetrators’ earnest opinion or insincere window dressing? Was it best understood as a continuation of interwar ecofascist ideology or as some kind of hybrid ideology taking influence from left-leaning ideologies? It has also been debated whether eco-fascism was a short-lived trend or whether it has taken root more permanently within far-right circles. Compelling evidence has been presented that eco-fascism is thriving online and continues to serve as a unifying point for parts of the far-right movement.
This Insight aims to shift the focus from online communities to take stock of this trend within targeted violence manifestos. The following is an investigation into targeted violence manifestos in recent years and to what degree they still exhibit environmental concerns. With Kristy Campion’s definition of ecofascism (p.933-934) in mind, one could argue that almost all of the manifestos investigated in this Insight should be regarded as ecofascist; they do share a fundamental notion of societal degeneration and the need to restore a more “natural” order. In that regard, the aim in this Insight is more modest than an analysis of contemporary eco‑fascism — it is simply to map out the extent to which environmental concerns are expressed by recent terrorists. Environmental concern is defined here as grievances related to pollution, climate, consumption, biodiversity, and related issues.
To help address that question, the following violent extremist manifestos have been investigated:
Poway synagogue shooting (April, 2019), the Bærum attacks (August, 2019), the Bratislava shooting (October, 2022), the Jacksonville shooting (August, 2023), the attempted knife attack in Newcastle, Australia (June, 2024), the Eskişehir stabbing (English translation) (August 2024), Abundant Life Christian School shooting (December 2024), and the Antioch High School shooting (January, 2025).
The manifestos constitute a substantial portion of the material I work with on a daily basis in connection with my PhD research. Some of them are publicly accessible, for example, on government websites, while others have been obtained through fellow researchers and CVE stakeholders.
Methodologically, I have employed a straightforward analytical strategy in which the manifestos were read in their entirety, during which I marked passages related to environmental concerns. The manifestos have been selected on the basis that they are believed to have been inspired by one or more of the three manifestos related to the attacks in Christchurch, El Paso, or Buffalo. This assessment may be based on direct references within the texts (for example, mentioning the Christchurch perpetrator in a positive manner) or on information that emerged during subsequent court proceedings. This should not be viewed as a complete list, but rather as a representative sample.
While these manifestos do not necessarily align on every aspect of their ideologically motivated violence, it is reasonable to find them somewhat interrelated, given their references to one another. It is a well-established fact that perpetrators today have much easier access to other perpetrators’ manifestos than in the pre-Internet era. As a genre, these manifestos are embedded in — and shaped for — online distribution. They use memes and other easily shareable visual elements, and they interact with other genres, such as live‑streaming. Many of the perpetrators have been a part of what we can call Spaces of Hybridized Prefatory Extremism— or HYPE-spaces— An online space whose very structure and content carry the risk of fostering ideological cross‑pollination that could lead to violent extremism. As I have noted in previous research, there seems to be a deepening of the extreme right lone-actor segment and the school-shooter admiration milieu, which includes some of the above-mentioned cases. The manifestos’ interconnectivity and inspirational aspect should also shape how we understand them. As many are written in dialogue with earlier manifestos, it is useful to adopt analytical strategies that foreground these interrelationships.
This Insight concludes that, overall, violent extremist content concerned with environmental issues has declined. Further, I suggest that the decline could be understood in relation to the rise of nihilistic ideology in the manifestos. This is either because the nihilistic ideology can be seen as some form of ideological elaboration of the eco-fascist ideas presented in the three original manifestos, or alternatively, because exhibiting environmental concerns differs too much from the nihilistic worldview to still be included.
Ecofascism in Terrorist Manifestos: 2019-2022
The manifesto of the Christchurch attacker brought the idea of ecofascism to the fore of terrorism studies in 2019. In his writing, the self-declared ‘ecofascist’ showed concerns for how the environment was allegedly being “destroyed by overpopulation”, criticised the right for not conserving the natural environment but submitting it to industrialisation, criticised the left for co-opting the environmental movement, and placed “the protection and preservation of these lands” as a top priority. Further, he criticised “hedonistic” lifestyle, “consumerism”, and “individualism”. Crucially, in contrast with, for instance, the Norwegian 2011 perpetrator, the Christchurch perpetrator did not deny climate change but instead framed non-white “overpopulation” as its cause. In a more vivid section, he stated: “The Europe of the future is not one of concrete and steel, smog and wires, but a place of forests, lakes, mountains and meadows.” This passage, where he emphasises the grandeur of nature, appears to have been part of the perpetrator’s attempt to persuade the reader.
The El Paso perpetrator opened his significantly shorter manifesto by declaring his general support of “the Christchurch shooter”. But he did also add a few of his own environmental concerns. He criticised “the American lifestyle” that destroys “the environment of our country”. In a section with various environmental concerns, he was particularly discouraged by the extensive use of “paper towels” used to “wipe water off our hands”.
The Buffalo perpetrator presented some of his own ideas about the importance of nature, but largely replicated the manifesto by the Christchurch perpetrator, including ecofascist portions.
The following section seeks to take stock of how widespread environmental concerns are in manifestos that have appeared since, written by perpetrators inspired by them.
Ecofascism in Terrorist Manifestos: 2019-present
In the targeted violence manifestos analysed, the majority of which were written and circulated after 2022, there has been a remarkable decline in the environmental concerns exhibited by perpetrators. Seven out of eight manifestos do not exhibit environmental concerns in a way compatible with the three manifestos connected to the attacks in Christchurch, El Paso, and Buffalo. Within these seven manifestos, there are minor exceptions, such as a derogatory reference to a person of minority background who “litters”. Such examples can be interpreted as an environmental concern, but if so, only as a surface-level comment, and not as part of a lengthier ecofascist argument.
Only one of the eight manifestos examined dedicates substantial space to expressing environmental concerns, that of the attempted Newcastle knife attack. In this manifesto, the perpetrator discusses such a diverse range of grievances, ranging from the invasion of Iraq to the so-called Hollywood elite and even vaping. He addresses the issue of climate change but denies that he is a “nutty climate change activist”. He expresses frustration that Australia has not long since introduced nuclear power and sees it as a solution to the climate crisis. According to the Newcastle perpetrator, the political left is to blame for the country’s flawed energy policy. In the 200-page manifesto, he dedicates a full eight pages to this topic. In sum, it is a topic he has given considerable space to, yet at the same time, it can only be seen as one among several presented grievances.
Based on the analysis of these eight notable manifestos, it can be concluded that environmental concerns have largely gone out of fashion in targeted-violence manifestos.
Ideological Elaboration or Environmental Dismissal?
As ecofascist ideologies have seemingly drifted from targeted violence manifestos, in recent years, new ideological trends have gained traction. A prominent one is the emerging trend of Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE). Although some argue that NVE should be understood as post‑ideological, this Insight takes the position that it is more productive to view it as connected to established ideological traditions, including the extreme right variant of accelerationism. While popular, the term is contested, and others have been proposed. For now, the FBI’s definition is useful for describing NVE: “individuals who engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability”.
At minimum, the manifestos related to Newcastle, Eskişehir, Abundant Life Christian School, as well as the Antioch High School, could be interpreted as such. Although these manifestos are grounded in racism, similar to those presented in the three original manifestos, they are dually accompanied by a misanthropic critique of humanity in its entirety.
The decline of environmental concerns in the manifestos can be understood in at least two ways. The first interpretation is that these ideas have been appropriated and elaborated within a more nihilistic disposition, effectively functioning as an ideological extension of the eco‑fascist themes found in the three original manifestos. In the Eskişehir manifesto, it is stated that “Nature is a thousand times superior to humanity”. The example with the littering person with a minority background is also from one of these manifestos. Humanity and nature are often contrasted as opposites, and with the explicit desire to eradicate or limit humanity. Therefore, one interpretation is that nature would be left strengthened if humanity were destroyed, or at least reduced. In this reading, the focus shifts from specific groups—often immigrants—to humanity as a whole, which is now portrayed as harmful.
The other competing interpretation I would like to suggest is that the nihilistic ideology is at odds with the previously expressed environmental concerns. For instance, nihilistic violent extremists would not endorse the vision of the Christchurch attacker’s European future being one of forests, lakes, mountains and meadows. It is hard to see how such sentimental thoughts can be incorporated in the midst of the nihilistic, misanthropic world view presented in the manifestos. In such an interpretation, the exhibited environmental concerns have been pushed out and replaced by the nihilistic thought set.
Regardless of whether we choose to view nihilistic tendencies as an extension or as a replacement for the exhibited environmental concerns, this illustrates the need for analyses that can trace the development in manifestos across time and space — and across perpetrators.
Key Takeaways:
- This Insight does not claim that eco-fascism is generally in retreat, but rather that to exhibit environmental concerns no longer holds the same status as it once did in targeted violence manifestos.
- The Insight proposes that the analytical strategies we use to read targeted violence manifestos should, to a greater extent than before, consider their connection to one another and the development over time.
- There can be a general tendency within CVE research to focus on the latest emerging trend. This is understandable. Yet there may be just as much to learn from examining how tendencies wither away as from studying how they arise.
- The findings confirm the general understanding within the field that the threat from nihilistic violent extremism is imminent.
- Where previous attention has focused on online forums with specific political orientations or on the algorithms of mainstream social media platforms, several of the recent acts of violence discussed in this Insight suggest that attention should also be directed toward online fringe communities, where individuals can cultivate admiration for past perpetrators and gather information that may be used to carry out violent acts themselves.
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Daniel Nikolaj Madsen is a PhD student at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen. Madsen’s PhD thesis is centred on extreme right lone-actor manifestos from a rhetorical genre perspective (RGS). This insight is inspired by Madsen’s current research, which will be included in the PhD thesis in 2027.
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