Green Is the New Bad: Libertarian Populism and the Edgar Friendly Style of Climate Denial

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This paper examines the rise of an increasingly appealing, ideologically driven form of climate change denial that cannot be reduced to the fossil-fuel industry’s strategy of merchandising doubt: libertarian populism (LP). Neither populism nor libertarianism, taken in isolation, necessarily entails opposition to climate science or climate action. But when combined, they form a coherent hybrid that resists both. LP operates through three intertwined features: epistemic defiance against expert authority, a defense of individual freedom, and a nostalgic attachment to carbon-intensive lifestyles and industrial modernity. Drawing on cultural and political examples – from Demolition Man’s Edgar Friendly to Javier Milei and the AfD – the paper shows that LP’s appeal lies in its capacity to recast high-carbon practices as symbols of identity and transgression. In doing so, it reverses the moral codes of climate politics: if green once meant good and polluting meant bad, LP turns this on its head. Green is thus the new bad.