Project 2025: Destroy NOAA

The massive, fascist manifesto “Project 2025” details the systemic dismantling of the United States government, written and promoted by Trump associates, and now the working template for Trump’s next administration

The aggressive roll-back of human and civil rights and liberties captured most of the media’s attention during the election cycle, but at the time it was dismissed as speculative and Trump denied his connection to it.

Now that Trump and members of his administration have admitted they’re behind it and will be implementing it, there is a lot of ground to cover in what other horrors await.

I’m going to start with one that is personal for me: This dismantling of NOAA.

In less than three full pages¹, Project 2025 outlines a plan to dismantle almost all of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its programs.

NOAA houses the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and more.

NOAA serves as the lead government research agency for weather, oceans and climate.

Here’s part of what P2025 plans for the agency:

Eliminate: National Ocean Service surveying functions, transferring their operations to the USGS. The authors here assume the already underfunded USGS is fully staffed with oceanographers - scientists who specialize in ocean science. Ocean science is not interchangeable with geology. Someone who studies volcanoes is not equipped to conduct research on harmful algal blooms, tides and currents, marine debris, salinity and temperatures, navigation, oceanic and tidal ecosystems, arctic climate, and most of all — weather. I think all climatologists should take geologic coursework (I did) and have a foundational understanding of its functions, and I have the upmost respect for geologists, but they are not a replacement for ocean and climate scientists.

Cancel: The 30x30 Executive Order and Associated America the Beautiful Initiative, which prevents further commercialism and industrial activity in sensitive oceanic environments. The program seeks to restore and conserve at least 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030.

Neuter: The Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Privatize: Severe weather predictions and alerts.

The authors of 2025 state, without a hint of irony or self-awareness, “Together, [NOAA] form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.”

Climate change and its impacts pose the single greatest threat to national security.

The United States spent $165 billion on climate and weather-related disasters in 2022.

Last year, the U.S. broke the record for the number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters with 28 disasters costing more than $91 billion.

And billion dollar events are becoming more frequent and severe with time.

For the 10-year period of 2010-2019, 131 weather and climate disasters cost the United States nearly $1 trillion.

There have already been 127 billion-dollar disasters costing us $680 billion since 2020, and we’re not even halfway through the decade. That figure also doesn’t include damages to be paid for Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Both Hurricane Milton and Helene are expected to cost more than $50 billion each.

Final cost estimates range as high as $100-200 billion.

NOAA’s entire budget for 2025 is $6.6 billion.

That’s less than 1% of what we’ve spent on climate and weather disasters so far this decade. NOAA is the chief agency tasked with researching and preparing for climate and weather related disasters, both short and long term.