Abstract

This morning, I got to run to the hills with Elin for an hour before returning home to submit an abstract to a new edited volume on the interplay of ideologies and environmental politics. Writing together with my long-time Australian co-author Jonathan Symons, we will hopefully hear back soon about whether we have been accepted.

Otherwise, the plan for today is to take the kids down to Kållered to see a friend while I check out the local Nordic Wellness gym. Having unlimited access to all clubs across Sweden really is such a perk – especially handy during the rain in Ystad the other week.

The title of our chapter is “Ecomodernism, Equality, and Surprisingly Green Outcomes”, and the abstract reads as follows:

Ecomodernism is frequently criticized for its anthropocentrism, uncritical techno-optimism, and rejection of nature’s intrinsic rights. Yet emerging empirical evidence suggests a paradox: societies that prioritize human equality and democratic governance – values central to ecomodernist thought – consistently achieve better environmental outcomes. For instance, income inequality is consistently associated with increased biodiversity loss, underinvestment in conservation, and disproportionate pollution exposure for marginalized communities. This chapter interrogates the tension between rights-of-nature frameworks and human-centred ideologies, arguing that prioritizing universal human flourishing may, counterintuitively, support more robust ecological preservation. Drawing on cross-national data and analysis of the likely pathways through which political ideologies influence both inequality and ecological outcomes, we explore how social equality can mediate environmental protection by empowering communities, strengthening governance, and reducing elite resistance to regulation. In doing so, we suggest that ecomodernism, far from being indifferent to nature, may offer a more plausible path to a "good Anthropocene", not in spite of its humanism, but because of it. Ultimately, we challenge the conventional green/non-green binary and show how ideologies that foreground human dignity and progress may yield surprisingly green outcomes.