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

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.