Ground transportation is Hawaii's largest source of greenhouse gases (GHGs), so it's up to everyday Hawaiians to transition away from fossil fuels and permanently switch to 100% renewable energy transportation by 2045. It will be.
Among the many policies necessary to this end, the Hawaii Legislature considered Senate Bill 506 this session. This bill would require consumer health and climate warning labels to be displayed at all gas pumps in Hawaii.
Unfortunately, this bill died, but we hope it will be revived next year.
The mandate follows the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which passed this law in 2020, and Hawaii's Global Warming Label states, “The combustion of gasoline, diesel, and ethanol has significant environmental impacts, including contributions to human health and climate change.'' There is a high possibility that it will be described as “having an impact”. ”
The country of Sweden has also introduced a similar “ecolabel” program for gas pumps starting in 2021.
Consumer warning labels are not without controversy. Authors Claudia Polsky and Megan Schwartzman describe California's Prop 65 label in their study, “The Hidden Success of Visible Laws: Proposition 65 and Reducing Exposure to Toxic Chemicals.” The law, which has been in effect since 1987, required companies to disclose carcinogens in everyday consumer products in an effort to reduce exposure.
According to the authors, this regulation called into question deep-seated beliefs about government intervention and the extent to which we are rational, autonomous, and free individuals.
A study conducted by Hawaii-based nonprofit organization Think Beyond the Pump on government-mandated health/climate warning labels on gas pumps found that they are effective in changing public attitudes about gasoline and diesel fuel. It turns out that there is something. Technically speaking, Hawaii's net-zero emissions transportation goal incorporates a consumer component.
A key part of moving consumers away from traditional fuels and towards non-polluting alternatives is making clean energy choices more visible. This is particularly true given the low knowledge of the average person about the harm caused by fossil fuel combustion, the behavioral changes associated with transporting 100% clean energy, and the need to decarbonize transport systems at this time. That's the case if it's not a top priority for most people. people.
Authors James Brooks and Christy Ebi say that global warming labels can motivate people to consider alternatives to petroleum fuels, especially by increasing public knowledge about the harmful health effects of gas combustion. I discovered that it is. The Surgeon General's warnings on cigarette packs have increased our knowledge of the specific harms of smoking, which has provided further impetus to the downward trend in overall smoking rates in the United States.
Warming up labels as a public health education effort will disrupt demand for gasoline by forcing us to experience up close and personal the harm caused by our own actions. For most people, by learning new information first-hand about the harmful effects of burning gas, the label activates existing mainstream concerns about the health and climate change associated with the continuation of fossil fuels and helps individuals who purchase gas will influence your choice. Commonly already experienced uses.
Repeated exposures could increase public and political desire not only for immediate and long-term emissions reductions, but also for a more proactive policy stance on the gas combustion pollution “problem.” Labels that fuel these existing concerns about burning fossil fuels would introduce new social pressures that burning gas is indefensible because it leads to human suffering.
A currently non-existent social norm that “gas is bad” could more easily accept, sanction, and permanently adopt new transportation behaviors that seek to reduce these harms. In other words, SB 506 could make EV selection a healthier choice in line with Hawaii's fully electrified transportation goals.
Sidestream smoke
With the advent of Surgeon General warnings on tobacco that conveyed existing concerns about the negative effects of smoking, smoking in public places became socially irresponsible. Tobacco warnings have created a new social expectation that smokers must protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke.
Since their introduction in 1966, tobacco warnings have included more graphic images as well as direct references to the risks of second-hand smoke. This warning originally focused on harm to the user, but was restructured to also include harm to others.
This is the framework within which the global warming label revolves. Their public health messages make it clear that burning gas harms other people.
The “hidden success” of the Prop 65 label was that it forced companies to warn the public about toxins in their products. The label's “quiet menace” was at once its most reprehensible characteristic and the source of much of its transformative power.
In an effort to avoid the Prop 65 label, companies have begun removing potentially carcinogenic substances from their products, such as Wightout, herbicides, and jewelry. Coca-Cola has replaced 4-MEI, a potentially toxic ingredient in caramel coloring, with a less toxic version. Phthalates were removed from toys and child care products, as was lead in drinking water.
We know that people pay attention to warning labels that have personal relevance.
This is not a complete list. The broad utility of the Prop 65 regulations was to advance California's health protection goals. Hawaii declared a climate emergency in 2021, but fuels, the largest source of emissions, are not regulated enough to protect the public interest.
Fossil fuel consumers need better information than they currently have to advance Hawaii's net-zero carbon transport goals. Of course, labels won't immediately stop people from buying gasoline, but we know that people pay attention to warning labels that are personally relevant.
The study found that by increasing knowledge about the concerns they already have about health and the climate, warming labels can increase the number of people among individual drivers who are asked to directly solve the issues outlined through their own actions. It was also found that the belief that there is a child is also strengthened.
