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Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts touted a decrease in weather-related deaths. The decrease is partially due to NOAA, an agency Project 2025 wants to dismantle.

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Published 09/26/24 2:49 PM EDT

During The New York Times’ “Climate Week NYC” discussion with Heritage Foundation president and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts, reporter David Gelles outlined the right-wing initiative’s regressive approach to climate change and the environment.

Gelles also noted that Project 2025's call to dismantle climate action comes as the world is already experiencing the consequences of a warming climate, pointing out that a record number of people in the Phoenix, Arizona, area were killed by extreme heat this year alone.

Roberts responded by pointing to Heritage Foundation research claiming that there has been a “reduction in climate deaths — climate-related deaths — over the last century by 98%.”

Not only is this a red herring argument used by climate deniers to downplay the climate crisis, but that reduction is reportedly due in part to improved forecasting, which is done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency Project 2025 has called to dismantling.

Video file

Citation

From a September 25, 2024, livestream of the 2024 New York Times Climate Forward event 

As Reuters has reported, the decrease in deaths since 1920 is largely due to “better forecasting and preparedness,” even while “the number, intensity, and cost of climatic and meteorological hazards have all increased over the last hundred years.”

According to Vox:

Disaster prediction has seen dramatic improvements, especially in the era of weather satellites and vastly more powerful computers. For example, the National Hurricane Center can now project the path of a hurricane 72 hours in advance. In 1990, the center could only make such a prediction 24 hours ahead of a storm, and with less accuracy. Now consider that according to the WMO [World Meteorological Organization], having 24 hours of warning ahead of a storm reduces damages by 30 percent. Two additional days of lead time and a more precise storm path is a massive improvement that has helped even more people get out of harm’s way.

Notably, Project 2025 calls for dismantling NOAA, which houses the National Hurricane center, the very agency that has improved the forecasting of deadly weather events and is critical to providing life-saving information. 

As Hurricane Helene barrels toward the Florida coast, NOAA is appealing directly to reporters to get out life-saving information related to the severity of the storm. The Heritage Foundation seems to think the agency spreading that information is unnecessary.

“Note to Reporters: This is a rare news release from @NOAA for an operational weather event. We urge the news media to continue focusing the public’s attention on the major impacts from inland flooding expected along the path of Helene well after landfall” pic.twitter.com/XV6fgtfoVl

— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) September 25, 2024

Project 2025 is an extreme right-wing initiative organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration. The effort involves more than 100 partner organizations, a database of potential MAGA staffers, and a secret 180-day plan. Its nearly 900-page policy book — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise — represents a major threat to democracy and the planet.

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