Is guilt the path to serious climate action? New labelling campaign wants to test theory that guilt works
You
drive up to the gas pump, grab the nozzle and start filling up your car
or SUV. Captive for a good two minutes, you look down and see a label
on the handle of the nozzle showing a little boy staring out a window,
his sad face reflecting in the glass.
“Use of this fuel product contributes to climate change which may cause anxiety and depression in children Ouch That hurts.
It’s just one of several messages that Toronto resident Robert
Shirkey wants featured on gas-pump nozzles across the city, or any
municipality tired of waiting for federal action on climate change.
Shirkey, a municipal lawyer, has done his research. Turns out that
municipalities have the legal authority to make gas stations put the
warning labels – similar to the kind now found on cigarette packages—on
pump nozzles.
He’s now pitching the concept to those Toronto councillors most
likely to champion the effort within city hall. The big question, of
course, is whether warning labels that make us feel guilty for filling
up is an effective strategy?
Will pictures of an oil-soaked duck, malnourished children roaming an
African desert, or at-risk Arctic caribou convince us to ditch the car?
By warning us that filling up “may harm wildlife and damage
ecosystems”, “cause drought and famine” or “put up to 30 per cent of
species at likely risk of extinction”, are we more likely to take
transit, ride a bicycle, or purchase an electric vehicle?
Or, are they just going to make people angry? Desensitized?
Shirkey has been thinking about these questions since 2011, when the
idea first popped into his head. He decided then to run for city council
so he could effect change from the inside.
That plan got interrupted, however, when he opened up his own legal
practice. Life got busy and his political ambitions were put on the
backburner. Then one day, while on the phone with his sick grandfather,
the conversation turned to self-reflection.
“He sensed that I wasn’t very happy,” recalls Shirkey. “His last words on the phone to me were ‘Do what you love.’ ”
It wasn’t long after that his grandfather passed away and an
inheritance cheque arrived in the mail. “As soon as I opened up the
envelope, his final words echoed with me,” Shirkey says.
That same day Shirkey went to Osgoode Hall Law School on a research
mission: find out if municipalities had the power to mandate warning
labels at gas stations, and that it didn’t conflict with provincial or
federal legislation.
Turns out it was completely doable, and Shirkey now had the financial
resources – thanks to grandpa – to spend six months of his life focused
on making it happen. He founded a not-for-profit organization called
Our Horizon (www.ourhorizon.org ), hired a graphics designer to create his warning labels, and began putting together an exhibit of mocked-up gas pump nozzles.
The campaign was formally launched last month and Shirkey has already
gained near-unanimous support from the City Youth Council of Toronto.
His idea now gets consideration at the council committee level on March
4. In the meantime, Shirkey is building awareness one councilor at a
time.
“The first step is to honestly face the problem of climate change and
acknowledge it. I don’t think we’ve actually done that collectively as a
society,” he says. “The value of this idea is that it’s low cost,
globally unprecedented, and could potentially have a high impact.”
I asked a number of folks in the Toronto environmental and clean
technology community what they thought about the idea. “Can’t see how
this would convince people to drive less,” was one comment.
It may anger people, said another, “but to be honest, I’m long past
the point of thinking there is much upside in coddling the public on
this issue any longer.”
Councillor Mike Layton said he liked the idea. “It speaks to people
precisely at the point in time when they need this message,” he said.
“How that message is framed is equally as important as when they receive
it.”
Cherise Burda, director of transportation policy at the Pembina
Institute, said the messages might be more effective if, in addition to
making the climate change connection, they offered options. “Like
switching to a more fuel-efficient vehicle, or electric vehicle, or
getting out of the car a couple days a week.”
My own thoughts, which I expressed to Shirkey, is that the comparison
to tobacco products is somewhat flawed. The cancer and heart disease
that can result from smoking hits very close to home, while climate
change is generally perceived as a more distant and gradual threat,
likely to be felt most by those other than us.
For Shirkey, the warning labels – and the guilt likely to result from
them – are about mentally preparing us for the difficult decisions that
we’ll eventually have to make.
“What it will hopefully do is shift our collective consciousness so
that when a politician comes in and says I want to put in bike lanes,
put in public transit in a big way, or implement a carbon tax, people
would be less opposed to these ideas.”
They would be less opposed because such initiatives will ease our
collective guilt. “I almost think of this messaging as a first and
necessary step,” he adds.
Will it get traction in a city whose mayor is intent on ending the war on the car?
Mayor Ford is just one vote, says Shirkey. “You need 23 out of 45
people to vote for this, and I think there are a lot of people on
council really concerned about climate change who mi
ght be willing to do something a little more bold.”
ght be willing to do something a little more bold.”
And if Toronto doesn’t bite, he’s convinced that some other
progressive municipality – in Ontario, Canada, or somewhere else in the
world – will take the lead and cause the kind of ripples that made
smoking, pesticide and shark fin soup bans more commonplace.
Shirkey is committed to making it happen. He has wound down his law
practice. His grandfather’s money has been used up, so he’s now tapping
into savings.
“I’m going for broke on this, literally,” he says. “It’s something I believe in.”
The biggest climate rally in U.S. history took place this week. Perhaps the timing is right—somewhere.
Tyler Hamilton, author of Mad Like Tesla, writes weekly about green energy and clean technologies
http://www.cleanbreak.ca
.
http://www.cleanbreak.ca
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