Although I’m a climate scientist, I can’t stop thinking about how fascism is rising in the US. Sometimes I get hit by an abyss of intense anxiety because this is really happening. To me, the prospect of living under an authoritarian regime is truly a horror. And so, fascinated, I need to write about it.

Climate breakdown and fascism are connected. To limit planetary overheating and save as much of Earth’s capacity to support life as possible, we need coordination at the federal and international level. We won’t get that coordination under Trump’s authoritarian fascism, which, like all fascism, is detached from reality. And as planetary overheating accelerates, more people will be forced to become migrants. More migrants at national borders of less-climate-impacted nations will lead to more fear and resource guarding by their people (and also, a real increase in scarcity, as crops and infrastructure fail) which could usher in more fascism globally in a vicious cycle.

And climate denial - that cult-like resistance to truth, science, and reality - was always a harbinger of fascism.

For years, climate work has felt to me like a race between fascism and a grand movement to face reality with empathy, reduce wealth hoarding by the rich, transition from fossil fuels, and create a society that prioritizes the well-being of all. I’ve prioritized doing what I can to help build a movement. With elected officials choosing to ignore the clear warnings of scientists, a grassroots movement is our best bet to cool our overheating planet.

Similarly, I view protest and coordinated resistance as the only remaining path to stopping democratic backsliding and preventing fascist authoritarianism in the US. If the fascists manage to consolidate enough power and eliminate enough resistance, it feels plausible that they would go on to deliver Nazi-esque levels of mass derangement and death. Yes, it could happen here.

In other words, I don’t see a stand-alone “climate movement” anymore. It feels like the various disparate movements are merging into one. Groups of people are being increasingly “othered,” oppressed, and killed. The planet is overheating and dying. Fascism is rising. These seemingly separate threats are connected through the root nexus of colonialism, enclosure, extraction, capitalism, and astronomical wealth disparity… the extraction of wealth for the few at the expense of everyone and everything else. All the disparate struggles are boiling down to you, me, and most people versus the fascist billionaire class. Connection versus separateness. Empathy versus narcissism. Love versus fear. The stakes are planetary.

Yes, this administration is actually fascist

Am I being overly dramatic? I don’t think I am. This regime has been ticking every historical fascist box. Here’s a quick list of some of them that pop to mind:

• rapid-fire lies and propaganda;

• an insurrection attempt;

• interest in subverting term limits in order to remain in power;

• a sustained attack on science, academia, universities, the media, and all institutions that seek truth;

• vindictive elimination of military leaders, judges, lawyers, inspectors general, agencies, everyone and everything that challenged Trump in the past (so now there is very little oversight or challenge left within the government itself, just enablers);

• their replacement with people eager to demonstrate total fealty, with total fealty being the one and only qualification (just look and marvel at the off-the-charts levels of incompetence and ass-kissery in Trump’s cabinet);

• ignoring judicial orders and harassing the judiciary;

• creation of a mythic, patriarchal, hierarchical, “pure” past (encoded even in the acronym MAGA) and erasing unflattering parts of the past;

• creation of a racialized scapegoat group, non-white immigrant “criminals,” and the dehumanization of that group (Trump even refers to them as “vermin”);

• use of sexual anxiety to supercharge this othering (the immigrant “criminals” are “rapists”);

• a sense of victimhood (for example, the obsession with “illegal” DEI programs);

• a focus on “law and order” even when the regime itself is maximally corrupt and led by a multiple-felon (justification, unironically, for state kidnappings);

• the creation of a paramilitary organization to scare, oppress, kidnap, and ultimately facilitate the torture and killing of the scapegoat groups and eventually “homegrown criminals” without due process (ICE, and I don’t think it is possible to know that even the people who have been deported up to this point have not been tortured or killed);

• the creation of a dual state with a legal system for the in-group and the opening of a “legal abyss” for the out-group and dissidents, although I would say it’s actually a triple state, with a third category for those rich enough to be above the law.

This administration also encourages people to snitch, as was evident, disappointingly, even in a work email I received from the acting NASA administrator Janet Petro! Et tu, NASA?

This list could go on, and unpacking how this administration is following the fascist playbook merits a post of its own. But at this point, the patterns are clear to anyone paying attention.

As a young man, I did not understand how the Nazis or slavery were possible. My natural assumption was that almost all people have a core of empathy and truth-commitment, and would stand strong against the few who selfishly seek power and to control others.

Apparently, many people do not have a very strong core of empathy and truth-commitment. As a society we are slipping into fascism, and roughly 40% of Americans enthusiastically side with the fascists, even though fascism is the polar opposite of the American ideal I grew up with. My parents both remain staunch Trump supporters, despite my sustained effort to change their minds, despite both of my grandfathers fighting against the Nazis in World War II. This has been very, very hard for me.

What was protest like in Nazi Germany?

Recognizing that we are in a period of backsliding from democracy into fascism, how can we stop it? I instinctively know that protest and civil resistance are critical. These are bullies, and bullies are cowards. As I wrote earlier, recent research backs this up. What sorts of protest and resistance did Germans mount as Hitler sought dictatorship?

Team Hitler had some key advantages over Team Trump. After its humiliating defeat in World War I, the newly democratic Germany was roiled with political and economic chaos, which hit a peak in 1929 with spiraling unemployment in the Great Depression. The German people, accustomed to monarchical rule, hungered for stability. They were increasingly disillusioned with democracy.

After Hitler assumed the chancellorship, he reduced unemployment by forcing women to leave their jobs and into traditional domestic labor, arresting Jews and giving their jobs to “pure” German men, and refocusing the economy on a rapid military buildout. Hitler also had a series of foreign policy successes that helped restore national pride. As a result, he was overwhelmingly popular. Even university students supported him.

Of course, Team Trump has its own advantages, such as a steadfast core of evangelical Christians willing to overlook his anti-Christian actions and demeanor (Hitler was sometimes at odds with religious Germans); a country, built on slavery and genocide, that still hasn’t managed to overcome its legacy of deep racism; a powerful rightwing digital media propaganda machine that has existed for decades and has successfully established an unreality and cult-like conditions based on “alternative facts”; and a data-rich artificial intelligence apparatus capable of state surveillance beyond Hitler’s wildest dreams.

As it turns out, there was essentially no open organized protest or resistance in Nazi Germany during the critical period between Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1933 and the Night of the Long Knives on June 30, 1934, in which Hitler abruptly murdered or imprisoned over a thousand political opponents. Organized institutional resistance after that point would have felt impossible. Here are some major milestones of backsliding during this eighteen month period, with approximate times relative to Hitler taking office.

• Two days: Hitler eliminates freedom of assembly and freedom of the press under the guise of protecting the German people.

• One month: Hitler issues the Reichstag Fire emergency decree, revoking additional civil rights and solidifying the “legal” foundation for repression of resisters.

• Two months: Hitler creates the first concentration camps, and special courts for “judging” dissidents and sending them there (widening the “legal abyss”). The German parliament votes to give full powers to Hitler. Hitler fires disloyal civil servants. The Nazis create boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses.

• Three months: Unions are banned. The SA (“stormtroopers,” the least elite of the Nazi paramilitary organizations) have terrorized the left-wing opposition by violently attacking their meetings.

• Five months: Hitler outlaws political opposition and Germany officially becomes a one-party state. The SA foments riots in a suburb of Berlin, kidnapping dissidents and Jews.

• 6 months: Half a year in, democratic (leftist) opposition has been eliminated. The media, the judiciary, the civil servance, and all other institutions of civil society are compliant.

• 18 months: The Night of the Long Knives starts on June 30, 1934, in which the regime murders and imprisons those they feel are disloyal within the SA. Victims are portrayed as treasonous and sexually depraved (that is, homosexual). Since the German military has felt the SA as competition, this purge tightens the loyalty bond between Hitler and the military.

Only a few significant public protests occurred in Nazi Germany, and none during this critical 18-month period. First, in October 1934, about six thousand people gathered to protest the arrest of two Protestant bishops. Hitler successfully appeased them by releasing the bishops in order to keep the protest spirit from spreading. Second, beginning in 1935, a series of protests were enacted by Catholics when Hitler decreed that crucifixes in schools were to be replaced with a photo of himself; once again, he backed down and replaced the crucifixes. Finally, in February of 1943, after the war had turned against the Nazis, about six thousand people, mainly women, protested in Berlin for a week. In an attempt to purge Berlin of Jews, Hitler had detained nearly two thousand Jewish men married to “pure” (non-Jewish) German wives. These women, aware that their husbands would be killed in the concentration camps, took to the streets outside of the detention center. Once again, Hitler chose to appease. Their husbands were (mostly) returned.

Underground resistance only began years after Hitler achieved dictatorship. Starting in 1939, there was a series of unsuccessful assassination attempts against Hitler. In 1942, a small group of students, the White Rose resistance, wrote and distributed a series of pamphlets. (The White Rose has long been a source of personal inspiration to me. I use a quote from Sophie Scholl as an epigraph to the last chapter of my 2017 book, Being the Change.). There were also hundreds of thousands of deserters from the German military after the war started, but no concerted effort to mutiny or overthrow Hitler.

What should we do?

Without significant protest during Hitler’s rise to power, there was of course no significant institutional resistance. Furthermore, what little protest that did occur was for small, specific causes; there was no mass protest directed against the fascist regime itself. Widespread compliance was the wind beneath the wings of Hitler’s ascension. History knows the result.

Here in the US, we are fortunate that Trump is relatively unpopular. We are also fortunate to have a tradition of democracy and peaceful protest.

I’m heartened by the protests I’ve joined, such as the Saturday protests (April 5 and April 19), smaller protests at the Tesla center in Raleigh, and the May Day protest. Protests in the US, unlike Germany, have been focused directly at the Trump regime, which includes Musk. The other necessary piece is coordinated institutional resistance, such as universities finally starting to band together. Such resistance would be far weaker without the support of mass popular protest. In my opinion, our society remains harrowingly close to folding like a house of cards, but I feel cautiously optimistic that adequate protest and resistance can prevent the slide all the way to authoritarianism. Unchecked open dissent spreads, because we give each other courage. There is safety in numbers.

My main concerns are that people will become apathetic and stop coming out to protest; that the media will do a poor job reporting on the protest, slowing its spread; that people in positions of decision-making power for institutions and the opposition party will be too cowardly to move into the space opened by protest; and finally, that the regime will start imprisoning, deporting, or even murdering peaceful protestors, either through state violence or mob violence.

Fascist violence could suppress protest, but it could also cause protest to morph into riot. In the case of riots, with such a divided populace, I don’t think it’s possible to rule out massive escalation. This is why it’s important to help folks see that the real war here is a class war, and that the working class desperately needs to unite across the cultural divide against the fascist billionaire class. One objective of the Republican propaganda (such as anti-trans messaging) is to keep the working class fighting against itself, instead of uniting against the ultra-rich.

So protest early, protest often, and protest the regime itself as opposed to specific grievances. Pitch in and help organize, and encourage joining together with other movements. Protest helps keep us in fighting morale, and it presents its own challenge to the fascist regime. Speak out as powerfully as you can, and resist (as opposed to comply) at every opportunity. Try to bring others off the sidelines and into protest and resistance. Help organize protest and resistance, and pressure people with positions of institutional power to organize and resist.

People who do have positions of institutional power, such as Democratic politicians, business leaders, lawyers, judges, and university presidents, need to show leadership by scrupulously following longstanding ethical and professional norms, upholding law and order and the constitution, and organizing collectively whenever possible. They also need to show leadership by speaking out firmly and clearly at every opportunity.

The reason it felt so pathetic to see the little black circular signs held by the Democrats at the State of the Union Address is that the primary role of Democratic congresspeople, as people with actual power, isn’t protest. It’s supposed to be leadership and actual resistance. Chuck Schumer’s call to not resist (!) is cowardly and stupid, and would be disastrous if widely followed.

What comes next: We should improve democracy somewhat

It’s an enormous liability for our quest to stop fascist authoritarianism that the Democrats, as a group, are not resisters. For decades, the Democrats have largely represented the interests of corporations and the rich at the expense of the working class. Democrats and Republicans differ on cultural issues, but both accept large donations from corporations and the rich, and both therefore support corporations and the rich. This two-corporate-party dynamic is a key reason for the grotesque and growing wealth disparity, which is itself a key reason for the rise of fascism.

If we escape a fall into full authoritarianism, on the far side of all this, I hope we can use this disaster as a sort of fuel to overcome neoliberal status-quo-ism and find the backbone to improve our democracy somewhat. We need guardrails against money in politics and lies in the media. We need to fix undemocratic representation, such as occurs in the Senate and the electoral college, both of which should be eliminated. We need ranked choice voting so we can have more than two parties. We need to tax billionaires out of existence and start fixing the massive wealth gap. We need a legal system that enshrines due process for all, and does much more to ensure no one is above the law. Basically, at every turn, move the system away from corporations and the rich, and towards We the People.

I feel personally attacked by fascism

At my core, I find fascism repugnant, because I empathize with other beings, human and nonhuman. I also value truth. Actual truth is precious; it’s necessary for science, healthy relationships, and a healthy society. Those who seek to undermine truth endanger us all. I wish I could have nothing to do with people who lack empathy and undermine truth, but I share a planet with them.

The fascists have already deeply impacted my career as a climate scientist, which feels less and less tenable by the day. NASA still hasn’t released its ROSES (“research opportunities in space and Earth science”) omnibus of funding opportunities, my main research lifeline, which is typically released on February 14; and the administration’s proposed NASA budget for next year slashes science funding to the bone. Of course, climate science is a specific target. And, on the life-or-death level, I will never stop speaking out in order to be “safe.” To conform and to comply is to fuel fascism. While it may feel safer in the moment, it puts all of us in greater danger. I will never back down, even if it puts me at risk. I will continue to take a public stand against fascism and planetary overheating, and therefore, against this administration.

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It has been tough being a full-time scientist and a climate activist only in my spare time, and now, my job is under attack. However, I feel that my activism and communications work might be more important than my work as a scientist: writing, organizing, educating, being a spokesperson, and engaging in civil disobedience. This Substack is part of how I am attempting to pivot to sustaining my work as a spokesperson for the planet.