Burning Passes Easy to Draw Pics Boycotting Clothes Easy to Draw Sketched
Much like warnings on cigarette packs, climate change advisories may be coming to gas pumps
'The idea is we want to put labelling on gas pumps or on nozzles. ... We want to make it mandatory to say fossil fuels contribute to climate change'
First, it was smokers who were faced with graphic images of blackened lungs on cigarette packages. Now, Metro Vancouver motorists are the target as some cities in the region consider posting dire warnings about climate change on local gas pumps.
The idea has already gained the support of councils in the City of North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Port Moody, who say such warnings, accompanied by photos such as snowless mountains and flooded local streets, will get people talking about the environment. The campaign, promoted by an organization called Our Horizon, has also received support from the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which passed a resolution this year "that all vendors of retail petroleum products in Canada be legislated to provide warning labels on all pump handles."
"The idea is we want to put labelling on gas pumps or on nozzles. … We want to make it mandatory to say fossil fuels contribute to climate change," said City of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto. "We think this is the issue of our time. We want to explore it and see how far we can go."
The move is based on the similar campaign to deter smokers, which used a smattering of graphic images on cigarette packages. But just like that campaign, there would likely be dissenting views as to whether it works, said Nathaniel Payne, a researcher at Simon Fraser University, noting that while the climate change warnings would likely raise awareness, there is no way to determine any correlation in changes in behaviour.
"There's never a direct link in awareness and whether someone decides to take action on something," Payne said. "It's hard with the green climate issue. You can talk to 100 people and say 'It's getting warmer' and then we have a freeze. It's harder to see it. Any time you try to teach a consumer something or change a behaviour it takes a long time, (but) it certainly isn't going to hurt."
However, Andrew Klukas, president of the Western Convenience Stores Association, argues the move could have a huge effect on local convenience stores attached to gas stations. The gas pump handles, he said, are considered prime advertising real estate, which are often used to promote chocolate bars or other items to get motorists into the stores. He said the campaign would bring negative messaging to the gas stations, and possibly more costs to retailers to install the stickers, without any tangible results in changing people's behaviour.
If people were truly serious about climate, he added, they should perhaps put warnings on steaks in supermarkets, noting that agriculture is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, rather than try to make drivers feel guilty.
"It's not like the connection between fossil fuels and carbon isn't already known," Klukas said. "What difference it is going to make having some downer picture on a gas pump? I don't think it's going to be effective. It's just annoying."
Burnaby council, which has rejected the move to label gas pumps, agrees that it could pose some hardship for retailers. Coun. Sav Dhaliwal maintains any labelling should be mandatory across the region, province or country to make it fair for those businesses. He added his city is already involved in other measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as changing the way its facilities operate, and he is not sure this is the best way to tackle climate change.
"We felt that this might be something that's not really going to achieve the objective of what is being expected from the labels," said Dhaliwal. "When it's sporadic here or there it creates hardship for the vendors and businesses in certain communities but not all."
However, Mussatto believes strongly that the warnings will help. His council, which was unanimous in posting climate change labels at the city's five gas stations, will aim to label the pumps on its own through bylaw changes, he said, rather than waiting for the provincial or federal governments to step up. The city plans to hold a public meeting on the issue on Nov. 16.
Other cities, meanwhile, are being more cautious. Vancouver and Surrey have yet to make a decision as to whether they will support the labelling, while Port Moody has asked for more staff information before it moves forward. Meanwhile, West Vancouver Mayor Michael Smith, who spent close to 40 years in the gas retail business, said his council would prefer to lobby senior levels of government to legislate the changes, but noted that if North Vancouver can find a way on its own, "we'll piggyback on it. It's an innocuous thing to do to remind people while they're filling up their big black pickups in Surrey that there's a consequence to that."
Matt Hulse, of the Our Horizons campaign, said the labelling is a simple tool to reach a wide audience and get them thinking about their actions, such as using electric cars, carpooling, taking transit and fuel-efficient driving tips. Such labels, he added, may also have helped in the recent transit referendum, in which voters rejected a 0.5-per-cent sales tax for transportation expansion.
"The transit referendum got (reduced) to another transit tax and TransLink as the culprit and people forgot about congestion and traffic," Hulse said. "We could have put labels on the pumps to broaden the conversation."
Source: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/much-like-warnings-on-cigarette-packs-climate-change-advisorys-may-be-coming-to-gas-pumps
0 Response to "Burning Passes Easy to Draw Pics Boycotting Clothes Easy to Draw Sketched"
Post a Comment