Learn how Project 2025 threatens the Environment
We've got our work cut out for us
In our corporate-ruled system, which only allows candidates who put profit over planet, those of us who care about the environment would be rolling up our sleeves right now no matter who won the presidential election. (See my 10/7/24 post: “The Environment & the Election.”) But with Trump at the helm, we know specifically what we’re up against: Project 2025.
We all need to familiarize ourselves with Project 2025 because the time to start resisting it is now. At the end of this article is a list of educational resources I recommend, in article, video and podcast form.
The broad strokes: Project 2025 is a 900-page document put out by the right-wing Heritage Foundation that’s intended to guide policy and staffing in a Republican presidency. It covers all areas of governance, with environmental topics taking up a full 150 pages. The main thrust of Project 2025 is to dismantle the administrative state, which will include weakening or eliminating regulation that protects the environment.
Paraphrasing a summary by Earthjustice, Project 2025 proposes to gut the Endangered Species Act, repeal the Antiquities Act (which empowers the president to declare national monuments), weaken the Clear Air Act and undermine NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act), which is one of the best tools that environmentalists have for pushing back on environmental destruction in the US. It also seeks to maximize fossil fuel production, cut EPA funding for studying toxic pollution, shut down climate research, and reject the concept of environmental justice. (Their full summary: “What Project 2025 Would Do to the Environment – and How We Will Respond.”)
That’s the tldr, but we need to know more than that, hence the list of resources. But before that, I want to address the feelings of despair or helplessness you might have about both Trump’s vote total and the harrowing details of Project 2025. Let’s put these things in perspective.
Mainstream media often describes the nation as “divided in half” but that’s not really true. The number of people who voted for Trump is not “half the country”; it’s just a little over half of people who cast a ballot. As Eugene Puryear of Breakthrough News points out, the category “eligible voters” doesn’t include all adults. Left out are 10-12 million migrant workers and around 4 million people not allowed to vote because they were convicted of a crime. (I’ll add that it also doesn’t include anyone under 18 and at the high end of that range are people who will be entering adulthood over the next four years.) But most significant is that portion of eligible voters who did not cast a ballot, which is around 40%. So no, the nation is not divided “in half”; more accurately, it’s divided among Republican voters, Democratic voters, people not eligible to vote, and people who are eligible but didn’t bother. I think it’s important to keep this in mind; let’s not be more intimidated than we need to be.
Furthermore, the people who voted Republican and who voted Democrat are not monolithic groupings. There are many reasons people made the choices they did, and when it comes to environmental issues, we cannot assume that everyone from one camp is oppositional and that everyone from the other camp is favorable.
For example, at the local level, when a place is threatened by a proposed chemical plant, mine, or energy generating facility, etc., the people who oppose it are diverse, spanning different ages, ethnicities, and yes, political identities. I had a friend who successfully helped lead a campaign against a natural gas pipeline in southern Oregon, and the coalition of individuals and organizations definitely included people she had disagreements with on other issues. There are no big cities in southern Oregon, so it was a mix of town people and country people, in an area that’s mostly “red.” But what they shared was opposition to the pipeline, and by cooperating, they shut it down. Other campaigns around the US that are similarly non-homogeneous include those opposing mountain top removal in Appalachia, lithium mining in Nevada, fracking in New York, copper mining in Arizona, industrial solar farms in the Southwest, and oil production in Alaska. Likewise, people who are against pesticides, genetically-modified crops and war (see my “Ecological impacts of the war machine”) span the partisan divides of Republican, Democrat & independent.
Local efforts are incredibly important because Project 2025 is very top-down, and there’s not much we can do to stop it at the federal level. That’s a job for lawyers and big organizations. Yes we can “call our representatives” and that kind of thing, but we’ll be most effective dedicating our time and energy locally, where public officials are more susceptible to pressure, and where working with our neighbors will foster connection and community that is valuable in its own right. Since such campaigns represent wider issues and could benefit from outside resources, those with the means to do so can also support them if they’re not in the area. An example is the indigenous-led campaign to stop copper mining at Oak Flat in Arizona.
The Links
The list of resources is far from exhaustive. I chose these because they are well-researched, well-written/well-produced, and are from non-corporate media sources. Corporate media operates on narratives that are misleading, both factually and contextually, because they belong to the corporate class and share its values which, I repeat, put profit over the planet.
Substack articles about Project 2025 and the Environment:
“What Project 2025 means for the environment” by
“Project 2025 Part II: The EPA” by
“Project 2025 in the Real World” by
“I Voted, Now I Watch Project 2025 Videos Endlessly” (which focuses on tribal sovereignty) by Jackqueline Keeler at
YouTube videos:
“Project 2025 is a Nightmare for America's Public Lands…” from National Parks Diary
“Project 2025: As Bad for Cities as You Think It Is” from CityNerd
How we structure life in cities is absolutely central to environmental concerns
Podcast:
“Project 2025: A Literal Climate Denier’s Playbook” from The Climate Denier’s Playbook
Hosted by comedians Rollie Williams and Nicole Conlan, this meticulously-detailed podcast is the spoonful of sugar that helps that medicine go down. To find this episode where you listen to podcasts, consult their linktree.
Other articles:
“A Guide to the Major Climate and Environmental Excerpts in the Project 2025 Report” from Berkeley Law
“How Project 2025 Puts People and Our Planet in Peril” from Food & Water Watch
“5 things to know about Project 2025 and your clean water” from American Rivers
“Hindered Wildfire Responses, Costlier Agriculture Likely If Trump Dismantles NOAA, Experts Warn” from Inside Climate News
“What Project 2025 has to say about Native communities” from High Country News
Native people and lands are often on the front line of industrial development and unhealthy environmental policies.
Thank you very much for getting up to speed on Project 2025 if you haven’t yet. Thanks, too, to all the folks who have already been diving in, and have been putting out quality content like the stuff above. Like I said, we’ve got our work cut out for us and the time to start organizing is now.
I was listening to a podcast recently - sorry I can’t recall which one - but someone had questioned Trump about Project 25 and he said he’s not on board and called the people who pitched it right wing wingnuts. I hope this is true. Hopefully having people on his team like RFK jr - an environmental lawyer who spent his life fighting corporations like Monsanto - will have a positive impact on legislation.