This Could Make The Right-Wing Finally Take Climate Change Seriously
"What about the children?"
The political right famously resists climate action. Perhaps that comment is not especially fair, as statistics show us that most conservative voters in developed nations strongly support climate action. But, across the globe, conservative politics has consistently empowered progressively further right-wing leaders who are deeply anti-climate action and have even actively undone climate policies. Thankfully, that might soon change. The very values, rhetoric, and political tactics that uphold these ever-further right-wing-leaning leaders are now being profoundly challenged by recent climate change reports. So, is this the moment the political right suddenly cares about the climate?
Just a quick warning: this article talks about child loss, racism, and authoritarianism. So, some may find it disturbing.
The need for a change of heart has been highlighted within a recent climate report put together for the upcoming COP29 climate summit. It claims that miscarriages and child developmental issues due to our self-made climate crisis are a major ‘blind spot’ in our current action plans.
The report explains that frequent extreme weather, such as prolonged heatwaves and droughts, brought about and made worse by climate change, is causing more miscarriages, premature births, and cognitive damage to newborns. This is far from speculation, as the report cites numerous studies that back up this statement.
One study found that a mother’s risk of miscarriage in India doubled during recent extreme weather events as a consequence of heat stress. This shouldn’t be surprising, as India has repeatedly experienced near-fatal wet-bulb temperatures (read more here) in recent years. You might think that extreme weather can only impact mothers and their children in developing nations, but that isn’t true. Another study from California found a correlation between long-term heat exposure and stillbirth and premature birth. This is supported by a wealth of research that has found links between increased stillbirths, increased rates of premature birth, and increased rates of cognitive damage to newborns with extreme weather across the globe, including in developed locations like Europe. The report also cited studies that show that environmental disasters caused by or made worse by climate change, such as the recent Hurricane Milton, cause enormous losses of pregnancies and newborns across the entire globe.
So, how does this impact right-wing conservative politicians?
Well, remember that one character in the Simpsons who would occasionally pop up and scream, “Think about the children?!” That is essentially why. This character is a parody of conservatism’s questionable use of children to falsely prop up their even more questionable policies. Let me explain.
Ever wondered why right-wing politics tend to be anti-abortion? It seems to go against their ideology of valuing individual freedoms over collective interests. Well, it’s because it is a key component of the manipulative, dangerous narrative that right-wing leaders push to gain influence and force policies.
The half-arsed answer to this question would be to claim that conservatism wants to keep the status quo or even return to the values of the nuclear family, in which allowing abortion would be contradictory. But if that is the case, why don’t they push pro-young family legislation? Support larger families? Or develop policies to create great economic conditions where only one average income can support an entire family?
Indeed, I suspect, as did the Simpsons and many others, that this pro-family approach is more of a manipulation tool to attract genuine conservative and pro-family voters and enable these questionable leaders to push their even more questionable views and policies.
So, what are these questionable views?
Well, for the past few decades, conservatives have been getting ever more worried about falling fertility rates. Some, such as Elon Musk, have claimed this could lead to total population collapse! Sadly though, there is no evidence for this at all. In fact, all population models show developed countries reaching a stable population with effectively zero growth soon.
But this concept terrifies extreme right-wing leaders such as Trump, Farage, and Orban, who push the Great Replacement theory. They insist that their nations must increase their birth rate or risk being overrun by immigrants. They refer to this not only in economic terms but also in genetic terms. Orban, Trump, and even Musk have all come out against diversity hiring, heavily suggesting women and minorities are less capable and intelligent than white men (which they demonstrably aren’t). The way they talk about this, combined with their Great Replacement narratives, is a giant dog whistle that proclaims that we need to protect the genetic makeup of the nation. As such, banning abortions and increasing the birthrate is openly and loudly celebrated by these leaders as a way to fight back against the perceived threat of immigrants.
This is basically new-age eugenics, but it is also the exact same rhetoric that a certain European political movement from the 1930s and ’40s used to gain power.
However, there is also another racist side to current right-wing anti-abortion movements. In the developed world, minority races are far more likely to be part of the working classes and, therefore, more likely to need abortions. As such, banning them enables the justice system to disproportionally punish racial minorities without explicitly doing so.
How convenient that these influential people are allowed to push this rhetoric under the guise of caring for honest family values. They couldn’t openly say they are racist bigots; that would be horrible. But saying they care about the nation’s implied white families, that’s nice.
Take Trump’s hilariously wrong “the immigrants are eating the cats and dogs” jibe recently. He was using the white American families he claims to care about to ostracise legal immigrants, push the Great Replacement theory and its racist eugenic ideology, and call for them to be illegally punished or deported. Yet, at the same time, he is openly preparing to impede said American families’ freedom by subverting the election.
The hypocrisy and manipulation are palpable. This tactic of claiming to care so deeply about children and families (provided, of course, they are white) is such a tired and worn cliche that many of us don’t even recognise it anymore. It has become part of our political world.
But what happens when fertility levels drop as climate change increases miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births in every race and class across the entire world?
Even extreme right-wing politics is starting to concede that climate change is real and human-caused. The science is just too painfully clear now. Even Mr. “I can’t read a climate graph” Jordan Peterson has agreed climate change is real and man-made. So, their latest angle is that it is too late to do anything or that the impacts won’t be that bad.
Unluckily for them and for everyone, falling fertility rates will be painfully obviously caused by climate change-induced extreme weather, which will undermine the very myth these right-wing leaders have created to justify their policies and gather voters. How can they claim to care about this family if they are enabling the companies that cause the environmental destruction that leads to so many miscarriages and stillborns? How can they maintain their racist and eugenic Great Replacement theory dog whistle if they are doing nothing to protect white families from this issue? If they don’t do something to correct this, it could be the hard dose of reality that undoes their entire delicate illusion.
So, will this make right-wing politics take climate change seriously?
I doubt it. As I said, there is a huge portion of right-wing voters in the US and Europe who want greater climate action from the government. What’s more, many swing voters see it as a major issue. Yet, right-wing leaders are ignoring the centrist notions of their voters and instead are trucking further and further to the right, doubling down on the false, manipulative narratives that got them into power.
As such, I see a divide opening up. Conservative voters do want their political ideology of the individual upheld, but the vast majority aren’t racist and don’t want their or their future child’s very way of life and existence to be profoundly threatened. As these right-wing leaders swing ever further right and as the climate catastrophe gets worse, reality will cause them to become even more disillusioned with the political party they once championed. The left and centre will then move slightly right while proclaiming to take climate action, take these distraught voters, and have a series of crushing election wins across the developed world.
That might not be how it plays out; I don’t have a crystal ball. All I know is that we are in for a colossal amount of pain as the reality of our climate crimes hits home over the coming years, and there will be no escaping it. Political leaders will have to adapt to this new reality and new priorities of voters or become obsolete.
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Sources: The Guardian, BBC, Macrotrends, Science Direct, The Guardian, Will Lockett, LSHTSM, PEW Research