what’s bad about Project 2025? Everything, but let's start with climate & human rights
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We are nothing without the environment. No matter how many dystopian movies tell us otherwise, we do not exist without it. It gives us our food, cleans our water, provides the air we breathe, the space we live on, and the animals we frolic with.
( r e ) ˣ is a Latina owned & operated brand. We believe that justice for all people is justice for the environment. We will never be quiet about our support for basic human rights: freedom, choice, gender, sexuality, food, water, sanitation.
If you’re wondering what a company that designs and sells hangers is doing writing about Project 2025, then you haven’t read it.
Project 2025 affects us all and this planet we all live on. Every business, every immigrant, every natural born citizen, every organization, every religion, every woman, every gender, & every piece of soil.
project 2025 is a roadmap not a vision board
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Project 2025 was not written by the Republican Party, it was written by something worse. A conservative think tank, based in the swamp they want so badly to drain, that has been doing this since Reagan (yeah, that Reagan): The Heritage Foundation.
The Heritage Foundation is a large group of billionaire (and probably some millionaire) right-wing Christian Nationalists focused on reverting the country back to the good ol’ days.
Project 2025 is a roadmap for a conservative president (AKA we voted you in now you do what we tell you to do). It is just Phase 1 of 4 from the Mandate for Leadership written by the foundation every 4 years.
it’s saying the quiet parts out loud
Trump has said he has no idea what it is but also somehow disagrees with some of the awful things in there. Either he’s lying or he knows the Republican Party well. And maybe he doesn’t know, but the people in his party, whom he selects to lead, whom he puts in positions of power — they do.
He may not “support” a full out abortion ban, but..
- Who built the most conservative & restrictive Supreme Court?
- Who put Roe V. Wade back up for discussion?
- Who pulled out of the Paris Accord?
- Who asked Big Oil to give him millions (1 billion) of dollars to get re-elected in exchange for removing environmental protections that are holding them back. Poor babies.
CBS news also scanned Project 2025 and point out:
- 80 proposals would revive executive orders made during the previous Trump presidency.
- 170 proposals match things he has actively campaigned for and mentioned in rallies & interviews.
- An additional 21 proposals match his past actions, promises & statements.
project 2025: a neon red flag tornado for climate change & people
Ultimately what this roadmap does — written in the voice of an impetuous, spoiled upper middle class 25 year old white man who feels he was wronged somehow at a restaurant and wrote a scathing YELP review — is take away the power of the government, and give it to a single person.
They talk about dismantling the government but not putting it back together again.
This is a government overhaul based on what a handful of rich, white, Christian nationalist billionaires want our country to look like. It basically says that if they take over, you will be forced to live under a government that conforms to their beliefs.
“The President-Elect should choose a Deputy Director who, without needing Senate confirmation, can immediately begin to implement the President’s agenda.” Page 208, Intelligence Community.
This is not a government for the people by the people. This is a government for people who want to control the rest of a nation.
And we haven’t even gotten to the climate part yet!
project 2025’s war on the climate
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Project 2025 doesn’t just ignore the climate crisis — it actively undermines it. Like, they really hate it. The word “climate” is mentioned 157 times.
- 36 times it is used neutrally or as the title of a section
- 3 times in author bios for people who work in climate related departments at the Heritage Foundation.
- 119 times it is mentioned in quotations to mock a current or Biden Administration policy, accuse the Left of a liberal agenda, or otherwise belittle the climate crises. This is usually followed by a recommendation to dismantle and remove programs and research.
It’s almost like they did a Chat GPT prompt to find synonyms. Here are some of my favorite terms:
- radical climate
- climate fanaticism
- climate extremism
- economy-killing climate programs
- climate czar
All jokes aside, over 50% of the times climate is mentioned, it is mocked and regarded as something the other political party made up as a scare tactic. Their advice is to remove as many climate programs, organizations, and research as possible throughout all departments.
some of the worst aspects of project 2025
The very typical climate photo we had to include by Li-An Lim/Unsplash
The biggest problem with Project 2025, well one of them, is that it downplays climate change, framing it as a total non-issue.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you but the problem is there will be no major one climate event… until we reach THE event we can’t come back from. And I think that’s hard for a lot of people to understand.
Climate changes will be slow and governments will continue to call them migration, pandemics, extinctions, tragedies, surprises, & economic hardships instead of part of the climate crisis.
Despite all of the science, from NASA, that there is “unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.” Despite evidence from every other country, Project 2025 seeks to not only halt it but reverse progress. If even part of it was enacted would not just halt climate progress it would send us into a backwards downward spiral.
This isn’t just about one administration’s policies though. With the U.S.'s influence, it sets a dangerous precedent that could influence global climate events either by encouraging other countries to also deprioritize any efforts OR by deprioritizing the U.S.’s standing as a global leader of the future.
project 2025 proposals & their impact
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These are just a few of the proposed actions across various departments that paint a truly horrific picture for climate policy. And I truly mean a few, I started taking notes and we would be here for hours if I included it all.
Department of Housing & Urban Development- “Repeal climate change initiatives and spending in the department’s budget request” (page 508)
- “Reversal of the economically destructive and ineffective climate-related financial-risk agenda of the Biden Administration.” (page 692)
- “The next administration should eliminate the Climate Hub Office and withdraw from climate change agreements that are inimical to the prosperity of the United States.” (page 709)
Department of Agriculture
- “Remove the U.S. from any association with the U.N. and other efforts to push sustainable-development schemes connected to food production.” (page 293)
Department of Education
- “Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.” (page 322) Even though they just said that families should be able to choose among a diverse set of education options.
In addition to these specific examples, Project 2025 includes broader, devastating actions.
Elimination of the EPA (p. 734)- The plan proposes gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Reversing the classification of carbon dioxide as a pollutant
- Halting federal efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
- The plan endorses messaging that casts doubt on the validity of climate science, framing climate change as exaggerated or fabricated.
- A cornerstone of U.S. climate policy, aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 through investments in clean energy.
- Repealing it would severely hinder the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
- You guessed it, this law regulates clean air! Apparently we don’t deserve that. Weakening this act would lead to increased emissions of pollutants, negatively affecting air quality and public health, particularly in urban areas.
- They want to repeal pretty much everything that provides subsidies or investments or research into renewable energy
- “End the focus on climate change and green subsidies” (p. 358)
- “Eliminate energy efficiency standards for appliances.”
- “End DOE/GDO’s role in grid planning for the benefit of renewable developers.” (p. 381).
- As a surprise to no one, Project 2025 advocates for expanding oil and gas drilling, including in environmentally sensitive areas like the Arctic, exacerbating the U.S.'s carbon footprint.
- The plan proposes rolling back fuel efficiency standards and emissions regulations, a major source of carbon emissions in the U.S. (p. 732)
- By removing climate change from U.S. national security considerations and adopting a more adversarial stance toward international climate cooperation, particularly with China, Project 2025 could derail global efforts to mitigate climate change.
Abolishing International climate cooperation (p. 701)
- They aim to withdraw the U.S. from international climate agreements, such as the Paris Agreement. This would isolate the U.S. from global climate efforts & hinder international cooperation.
- This supports the opening of public lands, including national parks and protected areas, to fossil fuel extraction and other industrial activities.
- The plan calls for weakening NEPA, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of their actions. Eroding NEPA protections would fast-track environmentally harmful projects, such as pipelines and highways, with little regard for environmental consequences.
- The overall philosophy of Project 2025 prioritizes economic growth and deregulation over environmental protection.
- The plan targets programs and regulations designed to protect marginalized communities from disproportionate environmental harm & most forms of harm. This would roll back protections for communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, LGBTQIA, and other vulnerable populations.
Honestly, it sucked reading this but in a way I’m glad this has become so ‘popular’. This has been going on for 40+ years and most of us had never heard of the Heritage Foundation or The Mandate for Leadership.
How can we fight it?
- Vote.
- Support small sustainable businesses standing up for the future you believe in.