Add Your Name to Those Asking for a Real — and Green — New Deal
Want to add your two cents’ worth to the incoming Obama administration’s call for New Deal-type investments in the US? You can help ensure a better future — and a greener one at that — by endorsing the Post Carbon Institute’s new proposal: “The Real New Deal: Energy Scarcity and the Path to Energy, Economic and Environmental Recovery.”
Written by Post Carbon Instituters Richard Heinberg, Asher Miller, Daniel Lerch and Andrew Calvo, “The Real New Deal” calls on President-elect Barack Obama to completely redesign our economy and society to wean it from its dependence on cheap (and soon-to-be not-so-cheap) fossil fuels.
“Our 21st century nation’s dependence on 20th century fossil fuels is the root of the economic and environmental threats we face,” the report’s executive summary states. “A coordinated, comprehensive transition to an economy that is no longer dependent on hydrocarbon fuels and no longer emits climate-changing levels of carbon — a Real New Deal for a post-carbon world — will be the Obama Administration’s greatest opportunity to lead the nation on a path toward economic, energy and environmental recovery.”
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The “Real New Deal” proposal calls for several key actions: a “massive and immediate shift to renewable energy”; a revamped transportation system powered by electricity; an accelerated and nationwide effort to build a smart energy grid; a decarbonized and relocalized food system; and rehabbing of structures throughout the U.S. to make them both energy-efficient and capable of producing energy.
“By ending our national addiction to fossil fuels, we can eliminate the need to police energy-rich areas of the world and save hundreds of billions of dollars annually through reduced military budgets,” the “Real New Deal” concludes. “We can reduce our nation’s political divisions by calling forth qualities of character prized by both liberals (concern for the welfare of others) and conservatives (local autonomy and self-sufficiency).
“In the end, what will be accomplished by this enormous collective effort is not merely the reversal of a historic economic and environmental calamity but the revival of a civilization – and the creation of a sustainable foundation for the accomplishments of future generations,” the proposal states at the finish.
You can find links to the full proposal (PDF) and a page where you can add your signed endorsement at the Post Carbon Institute’s Website.
The Post Carbon Institute is based in Sebastopol, California.
