We’re a bit behind our timelines but are catching up quick – and we have a lot of exciting things in store over the next few weeks. But we’ve already come a long way.

It was only four months ago that I was standing on a bar stool in a packed gallery thanking everyone for coming to our launch. Since then, we’ve been in local, national and international media. We’ve received inquiries from people who want to set up their own campaign in other provinces and other countries. Our idea has even received an endorsement from the organization of one of my childhood heroes and a Canadian icon (can’t wait to share this one soon!).

I think this all speaks to the simplicity and power of our idea. It’s only a matter of time before these labels are on gas pumps all over the world – and I believe that they will play a significant role in humanity coming to face the reality of what we’re up against and then rising to the challenge.

But we’ve already won.

I realized we “reached success” a few weeks ago when I was speaking to a high school student shortly after we did one of our presentations. At the end of all my talks, I let people know that municipal governments are highly accessible and that anyone can request to speak to their councillors at a committee meeting just by sending an email to sign up. After sharing our idea with 1,200 students, a soft-spoken grade 9 student came up to me to thank me for giving her the opportunity to address her elected representatives.

She confided in me that she’s been worried about climate change since learning about it a couple of years ago and was really angry that “adults aren’t doing enough.” She told me that she wanted to come to City Hall to speak to councillors when we present our idea. I remember her saying, “It’s just not fair”, and in her sensed the same frustration that I’ve lived with for too many years now.

Rob, Penny and Kai presenting to students with friends from 350.org

After months of preparation before our launch and months of campaigning after our launch, I realized in that moment that we’ve already won.

We have a mover and a seconder on the Licensing and Standards Committee in Toronto. Many councillors understand the gravity of climate change and appreciate the transformative potential of our idea. Given that my city will be on the hook for billions of dollars in adaptation measures, it would be financially imprudent to not consider such a simple, low-cost approach to mitigation. Whether or not our idea is ultimately adopted, I do believe it will clear the first hurdle of getting in line for a staff report.

And the important thing is this: the student I met will now get to share her concerns with the “adults” that are elected to protect her interests. Because of our project, her voice will now be heard when the committee meets on June 27th to discuss this proposal (*date to be confirmed). For me, knowing that our efforts will have contributed to this exchange means that we’ve already won.

I can’t wait to hear her presentation. Who knows, her voice may change the world.

***

Rob Shirkey is the founder and executive director of Our Horizon. If you want us to share our idea to your school or environmental group, please contact Penny at communications@ourhorizon.org to schedule a presentation.

Tell me a bit about yourself?

My first word was “Go.”

Save the two years I lived in New Delhi, India, I’ve always lived within walking distance of a major body of water. To me, the ocean smells like freedom. Rock climbing, yoga, and friends keep me sane. I loathe writing about myself.

I’ve always loved connecting people, and some of my greatest joys have come from bringing people together who otherwise wouldn’t have met to do something completely awesome. When I’m not at work, I’m volunteering, geeking out on politics, watching my girlfriend’s band, or spending some QT with my ginormous cat. No really, he’s huge. 

Why are you concerned about climate change?

Water is one of my biggest passions, and it’s also offering up the first lived indications of climate change. Droughts, floods, and encroaching oceans are disrupting food systems and creating the earth’s first climate refugees. I’m also passionate about the rivers that flow out of the Himalayan water table, many of which are glacier-fed. Hundreds of millions of people depend on that water source. Our warming climate is causing those glaciers to disappear at a rapid rate, and it’s terrifying to consider that they’ll be gone by the time I retire.

It has only taken us a handful of generations to drastically change how we operate in the world. Unless we do something now, once the effects of climate change really take hold, we’ll have to move even faster to adapt. That’s pretty freaky.

What drew you to Our Horizon?

It’s a visual, accessible, to-the-point campaign. One of the hurdles to addressing climate change is how easily the concept becomes overwhelming. Equally overwhelming are all of the structures that have gone into helping us create this mess. A campaign like this presents us with one thing that we can do to help move us all forward, and it’s something that, once we’ve won, we can see and touch. In the face of an abstract concept like climate change, I think a tangible measure is really powerful.

It’s also a grassroots campaign. Because it’s focused at the municipal level, it presents people with a reason to speak up at the level of government that is closest to them. And success can drive a desire for more and bigger successes, which inspires further participation down the road.

How have the last few weeks been?

Lightning fast! People have asked me what I do, and my answer is always “a lot!” Highlights include Jane’s Walks, visits to city hall, and a short trip in the trunk of a Smart Car. I fit!

What are you looking forward to most about our campaign to put warning labels on gas pump nozzles?

I look forward to seeing the folks who first pass this at their city council. I think it’s going to be a real celebration. Even better will be seeing them when the first labels are installed. Granted, the labels only signify the beginning of the hard work ahead, but there are a lot of people who are ready to get down to it. They’re hungry for it. The labels are like the pistol shot at the beginning of the race.

So Kai, tell me a bit about yourself…

Hmm, let’s see – when I was a kid, my mum always called me a ‘water baby’ because I loved to swim. I’ve always been a bit nervous swimming in big lakes, though: I prefer clear water, like rivers or Georgian Bay. I used to dream about having a house way out in the sticks, by some beautiful, quick-moving river – but now I’m pretty content to be living in the city. Mostly, I think a lot about how people can start living in a way that is both more respectful of the amazing planet we live on, showing some basic admiration for all its remarkable beauty and ingenuity, as well as showing more respect for ourselves. After all, we’re also part of this big web we call life, and are equally amazing.

Why are you concerned about climate change?

Why wouldn’t I be? I think anyone who really knows what’s going on with this issue has every reason to be concerned. Still, I think the term ‘climate change’ can be a little abstract for a lot of us: what’s really changing, after all, is the air – the stuff that you and I breathe – and our changing climate is just one major fallout of that. Beyond climate, there’s also ocean acidification choking our marine life, and air pollution choking all of us. Climate change is the scariest of all because if this problem isn’t solved, nearly all other environmental issues become a moot point. Climate change is the existential question of our time.

What drew you to Our Horizon?

I was drawn to Our Horizon because it touches on many of the more human aspects to a changing climate that are most important to me. On my back, I’ve got a tattoo that kind of reminds me of this: it reads ‘True Love Takes Courage’. What that means to me is that when you really love something – be it a person, an idea or life itself – it often takes great courage to care for and protect it. Alone, it can sometimes be difficult to summon that courage, but what’s great about Our Horizon is that it gives us the courage to all face this challenge together. Only by summoning the courage as a collective to honestly face what we’re up against can we then find the hope to move forwards.

How have the last few weeks been?

Terrible. Please, if you’re reading this, SAVE ME.

What are you looking forward to most about our campaign to put warning labels on gas pump nozzles?

Changing the world. No joke. The world has changed in some major ways before, and it’s rapidly changing again. These labels will help to wake people up to the reality of what’s going on all around us, and give us the desire and will to move forwards. They will help to rekindle many of our strongest human values, right at the time when we need them the most. They will not only encourage us to honestly face what we’re up against, but will also open the door to new visionary innovation and collaboration in building a brighter, low-carbon future. They will bring this issue into the public eye in a big way and will mean the end of either despair or denial, and no going back. From here on in, we are building a safe, caring and honest future that generations to follow can be proud of.

***

Heads at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund recently made headlines when they suggested that we need to let the true cost of fossil fuels be reflected in their price. The Globe and Mail summarized their views: “Achieving a predictable price on carbon that accurately reflects real environmental costs is key to delivering emission reductions at scale. Correct energy pricing can also provide incentives for investments in energy efficiency and cleaner energy technologies.”

Whether it’s through carbon tax or cap-and-trade mechanisms, the consensus among politicians, economists, and environmentalists seems to be that we need to have the price of fossil fuels reflect their true cost. But what does this actually mean? And what are the assumptions upon which this view is founded? And, most importantly, will it work?

“… accurately reflects real environmental costs… “

To appreciate this sentence, you must first understand the concept of externalities. Simply put, externalities are costs or benefits that are experienced through the use of a good or service and are not reflected in that good or service’s price. Capturing the “real environmental costs” of fossil fuels means that we have to internalize the harms associated with their use to have them reflected in price.

Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Pricing externalities means that if burning of fossil fuels is going to result in the loss of a species, we need to first establish the dollar value of that loss, then take this figure and spread it over all the fossil fuels we consume. This way, the cost is incorporated into the price of the product. For example, as the climate in our north changes, freezing rains are locking lichen under sheets of ice. The caribou that survive off this food source normally brush snow aside to access it but, because of our actions, it slowly starves; desperately trying to stomp through ice to access food that is visible but no longer as accessible. Pricing this cost at the pump means that you may be able to wipe out this species for a fraction of a penny.

What is the price of a human life?

Ultimately, this is the question that the head of the IMF and the World Bank and anyone who proposes similar regimes must answer. If climate change will cause drought, crop failure, human starvation and death, we must first put a dollar value on human life in order to have that cost reflected in the price of fossil fuels. “What is the price of a human life?” is the uncomfortable question that no reporter ever asks and it’s the inconvenient truth that climate change advocates often ignore. Moreover, after you’ve internalized this cost in the price of the product, the morally-problematic implication is that you can “purchase” that harm so long as you pay the correct price per litre.

Our unexamined world view

The idea of internalizing costs by way of a carbon tax or cap-and-trade regime is premised on a particular world view that says humans are rational, self-interested, all-knowing wealth maximizers that respond to price signals like automatons. But is that what we are? Or are we complex beings that also respond to moral information? If your framework is the former, you will develop solutions proposed by the IMF, World Bank, and the oil industry. If your beginning point is the latter, you will arrive at the market mechanism proposed by Our Horizon.

A simple warning sticker on a gas pump nozzle.

Our idea is simple: warning labels on gas pump nozzles like those on tobacco packages. The concept connects a behaviour with its consequence right at the point of purchase. It is a market mechanism that captures and communicates cost in a qualitative way. In pricing life, the IMF and World Bank solutions devalue life. Our solution is life-affirming. It provides information to the marketplace to engage our sense of humanity in a way that a 10-cent price increase at the pump never could.

Our idea is also consistent with the writings of economist Adam Smith. He wrote, “By acting according to the dictates of our moral faculties, we necessarily pursue the most effectual means for promoting the happiness of mankind.” Indeed, it is our moral sense of right and wrong that regulates the pursuit of our individual self-interest to allow the invisible hand to operate. Our label inserts feedback into our economic system to provide the moral information we need to allow the invisible hand to promote “the happiness of mankind.” In practical terms, our idea has the potential to move us from whining about increases to the price of gas to demanding we stop endangering the health of our planet.

But price is the only thing that will change behaviour!

If this is your reflex, you’ve drunk the Kool-aid. We must consider pricing mechanisms in the context of what is politically feasible.  In Canada, the idea of a carbon tax is so contentious that our federal government has actually said it would “kill and hurt Canadian families“. Unfortunately, given our political reality, we’re never going to see the “real environmental costs” reflected in price. Our situation is such that the best we’re ever going to see is marginal increases to price that are unlikely to have much impact on behaviour.

While the price of gasoline has been increasing over the last several years, a report by TD Economics observes that “the overall fuel economy in Canada has remained fairly flat over the past decade.” TD’s findings suggest that increases in price can initially lead to the purchase of more fuel-efficient vehicles but that we quickly adapt to the new norm and carry on living as usual. There is also interesting research that shows that pricing externalities has a tendency to commodify and can “often switch off moral behaviour.” So an inadequate price increase may result in a double-whammy: (1) it may fail to change behaviour in a meaningful way and (2) it risks making us feel like we’ve already paid for the harm and are therefore less likely to consider the moral implications of our behaviour.

We’re running out of time with climate change.

Ask yourself: is adjusting the price of gas from $1.25 /L to $1.35 /L going to be what saves us from what the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called “the moral challenge of our generation”? Are we going to look back 10 years from now and say, “That extra dime really turned the tide around on climate change”?

Einstein would say that the prevailing solutions are based on the same sort of thinking that got us into this mess. If you follow climate change, you know what we’re up against and you know how much time we have left. We need something to shake us out of our sense of complacency. Our Horizon‘s globally-unprecedented warning label campaign is it.

A first and necessary step

The first and necessary step in any transformation is to honestly face up to one’s challenge. Our label at the pump is a mirror that reflects back our behaviour. It forces self-reflection and opens up a necessary space for meaningful change.

Click here to contact your local representative and tell them to pass a by-law that requires gasoline retailers to place warning labels on their gas pump nozzles. The first community in Canada to do this will set a global precedent that may have the power to shape the course of human history.

If you would like to contribute to our campaign, click here or contact robert@ourhorizon.org. We are currently seeking major supporters.