Climate Change Warning Labels on Gas Pump Nozzles
We’re running out of time with climate change. We need something to shake us out of our sense of complacency. This is it. The labels create feedback by taking faraway consequences – like famine, the extinction of species and extreme weather – and bringing them into the here and now. Their placement on a gas nozzle reminds us that we each contribute to the problem by locating responsibility right in the palm of your hand. Finally, the idea captures the hidden costs of fossil fuel use in a qualitative way; the labels provide information to the marketplace to engage our sense of humanity in a way that a price increase of a few pennies at the pump never will. Municipalities can use their licensing powers to require gasoline retailers to place the warning labels on their gas pumps. We have developed a database with the contact information of every single municipal representative in our country so Canadians can easily advocate for our idea in their own community. Passing this by-law will attract international attention and it will quickly spread from there. Over 50 countries in the world have warning labels on their cigarette packages. Citizens in these places have been cognitively primed to adopt our concept. The labels will cause some individuals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions but, more importantly, they will create a shift in our collective demand that will facilitate meaningful action on climate change. Politicians will have more popular support to pass climate change legislation and businesses will innovate to meet the needs of a shifting market. The idea is a game-changer.