The Coming Avocado Politics
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Nils Gilman in Breakthrough Journal No. 12
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What happens when the ethno-nationalist Right gets serious about climate? As Nils Gilman argues in the newest Breakthrough Journal, it doesn't mean they'll suddenly embrace liberal policies. For years, many progressives assumed that right-wing nationalists refuse to accept climate science because it would force them to accept ideas they loathe. Not so, Gilman writes; there's a long intellectual-historical legacy of nativist policies justified by environmental needs.
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As traditional conservative parties crumble and the far right gains power in many countries, embracing the reality of global warming is likely to be used to provide a powerful new set of justifications for the far-right policy program.
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Gilman visualizes this pattern as an avocado: green on the outside, brown(shirt) at the core. It's a nod to the moniker used in the 1970s and '80s, when "Watermelon Politics" referred to the many first-generation European Green Party leaders that were also prominent members of the New Left: green on the outside, red on the inside. Avocado Politics is the parallel phenomenon on the Right. Those on the Left dedicated to ratcheting up public fears of ecologically driven social and economic collapse, Gilman suggests, should be careful what they wish for.
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The Breakthrough Dialogues is back
Carlos Curbelo & Alex Trembath on Republican climate action
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Carlos Curbelo is a former Republican Congressman from Florida's 26th congressional district. While in Congress, he co-founded and co-chaired the Climate Solutions Caucus, a coalition of legislators that still exists today, committed to bipartisan progress on climate policy. He also introduced the Market Choice Act, which aimed to attach a price to US carbon emissions, which we'll talk about in this episode – along with a discussion about Al Gore’s impact on the Hill, whether a bundling of issues (like the Green New Deal) makes them more or less attractive, and why there’s such resistance to climate propositions in Congress.
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📚This is what we're reading this week 📚
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A new report proposed a meat tax in the EU that would raise prices by €0.47, €0.36, and €0.17 for beef, pork, and chicken, respectively. They estimate the price increases would reduce consumption by over 50% for pork and beef and 30% for chicken by 2030.
Planting trees won't save the world, and focusing on them as the big solution to climate is a dangerous diversion.
Jeff Bezos, leader of Amazon and the richest human being on earth, took to Instagram on Monday to tell the world he will donate $10 billion to fight climate change.
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