Year
2024
Student
Natalia de Luna
Project
Imagine Our Future: A Speculative Design Website for Raising Awareness about Far-Right Environmentalism
Tagged
Website, double-bind, environment, interaction design, speculative design
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As the climate crisis deepens, far-right groups that have historically denied it face a dilemma: denialism cannot persist indefinitely. With that, an alternative future emerges. In this scenario, these movements might shift from a negationist posture to blaming climate change on minorities—groups that they already hold accountable for other problems.

Alternatively, even worse, they could claim that nature must be preserved to the benefit of a specific portion of society, sacrificing human diversity to do so, as stated by the self-declared eco-fascist El Paso shooter: "Everything I have seen and heard in my short life has led me to believe that the average American isn't willing to change their lifestyle, even if the changes only cause a slight inconvenience… So the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources".

These ideas can easily be absorbed by common sense as well, recognising that people anxious about the climate crisis are vulnerable to racist, xenophobic, and even fascist methods of addressing the problem. One example is the catchphrase "Humans are a virus", which gained increasing popularity during the pandemic, implying that it is reasonable to sacrifice lives to 'protect' the environment.

Understanding that part of addressing climate change is also making consistent efforts to block xenophobic, racist, and eugenic beliefs from entering green movements; this thesis investigated the misconceptions that permeate our society and are rooted in discrimination.

This thesis used secondary research methods, such as online observations, and primary research methods, such as surveys and workshops, to identify the most common themes in people's imaginaries that are connected to far-right environmentalism. Using a speculative design approach, these insights were translated into a dystopic narrative with a website as a medium that, by using illustrations, aims to spark reflection and discussion about the topic.