(Image source: Our Horizon)

According to reports from Triple Pundit, a Canadian Lawyer by the name of Robert Shirkey is pushing to have climate change warning labels placed on gas pumps throughout Canada. The campaign, available at its website ourhorizon.org, is lobbying for states and municipalities to place labels on gasoline and other fossil fuel based products to raise awareness and generate impetus for change.

Shirkey’s campaign is also driven by an awareness that only 16 years of the current pace of fossil fuel burning is necessary to put the world’s climate on an inevitable collision with a disastrous 2 degree or more temperature increase before the end of this century.

Shirkey’s campaign encourages people to send letters and emails to each of the 4,000 municipalities in Canada in a push to slap warning labels on fossil fuel products. The campaigns are market based and receives funding via crowd-sourcing. Each campaign states goals and provides the total funding needed to complete.

Our Horizon is a reference to the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill that damaged so much of the US Gulf Coast and Gulf of Mexico. As noted above, it is also an allegory to the rather brief period of time left to avoid the worst impacts of human caused climate change.

Warning labels were an effective means of reducing cigarette use in the US and Canada. The labels raised awareness, provided visible evidence of risk, and tended to reduce consumption of labeled items. Given the fact that worldwide human greenhouse gas emissions will likely result in a far greater risk to human life and health than even tobacco smoking, it is surprising that similar efforts haven’t already been pursued. Let’s hope similar campaigns spring up in the United States and other countries.

Links:

Triple Pundit

Our Horizon