Send Congress a Spine

The following was posted on the Post Carbon Institute’s website today. We thought the idea was so clever (and we agreed with the sentiment), the post is shown here in its entirety along with a link to donate a spine, donate to PCI and get on their newsletter list.  We also hope that spine extends to other policy areas!

Posted June 16, 2010 by Asher Miller

The horrific Gulf oil spill disaster has clearly shown that our nation’s leaders need us to show them what it means to have a backbone. So let’s do just that‚ let’s send one directly to President Obama, Vice President Biden, and each and every member of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

For every donation of $10 we will send President Obama or a member of Congress a spine with your name on it.

In his oval office address last night on the BP oil spill, President Obama took an important, though-long overdue step in acknowledging that the days of cheap and abundant energy are essentially over.

“For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked‚ not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.”

But the President failed to follow these words with any proposal or plan.

Not since Jimmy Carter has one of our nation’s leaders shown the backbone to really take on our addiction to fossil fuels–afraid, perhaps, to suffer the same political fate as Carter–while with each passing day and year we run out of time and resources to avert disaster.

In his recent response to President Obama’s speech Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg wrote:

Maybe the Carter Curse is real. Perhaps straight talk about energy is political suicide. But if nobody at least tries‚ if no one has the courage to make specific proposals that are commensurate with the scale of the challenge that faces us, then the political survival of the current office holder is essentially irrelevant.

Clearly our nation’s leaders haven’t found the backbone to stand up to Big Oil and break our addiction to fossil fuels, so we’re asking you to lend them yours.

Our nation’s leaders need 537 backbones. With your help, we’ll drop ship a big box of fortitude on Washington D.C.

Along with a toy spine sent in your name, we will also include an optional statement from you, to our leaders, about what you are doing in your life to kick the fossil fuel habit. we’ll be documenting our backbone shipments in pictures and videos that will be uploaded to the PCI Facebook page, so keep an eye out on this campaign’s progress.

We need to send 536 spines to Washington D.C. pronto. This means we’ll need help, so please help us spread the word.

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