Climate Conscious Labels

A simple yet revolutionary method of tracking carbon footprint.

There exists undoubted widespread recognition that climate change is an issue. Yet, the significance of individual actions is undervalued and understated because of a lack of awareness on the individual level. In fact, 45% of global emissions come solely from the production of things that we buy every single day. 99.9 percent of climate change is human caused, therefore human actions are significant and need to be addressed.  Today, there exists a collective action problem in which individuals hesitate to act. This is either because of a belief that another will act, or because joint action does not occur. Hence there is an overall lack of action. The scale of this problem is huge, as climate change impacts can be seen across the world. However, the specific impacts are seen on a much greater scale in areas with low resource abundance, high consumption, and developing countries. The specific problem of lack of action can be attributed to a lack of individual awareness about actions. For example, For example, 48% of adults believe that climate change is solely due to large industrial operations, and not individual actions. People often purchase goods or services having no idea how they impact the environment. If people were more aware on the impacts of their individual actions, the probability that they make more conscious decisions when purchasing goods and services increases. This results in fewer purchases of items that drastically impact the environment, reducing the harms of climate change.

Our solution to this problem is fairly straightforward. Using an online database of the number of global emissions generated by each product(found on https://ghgprotocol.org/life-c...) we will create labels for commercial products that indicate 1) how much they emit and 2) their harm to the environment on a scale of 1-10 so that people can visualize how significantly their products impact the environment. When someone goes to a store, they will see the bright green Climate Conscious Label with an indication of how much the product impacts the climate on a scale of 1-10, and make an informed choice on whether or not to buy the product. An alternative approach could be to state the number of emissions relative to miles driven in a car. For example, the consumption of a lamb is equivalent to 91 miles driven in a car. This number is easier to grasp than an abstract number regarding emissions. This will require technology to print and manufacture the labels, but will also require coding in order to sort and label each product using a database of a supermarket's inventory. 

The solution serves humanity as a whole since it is designed to lessen the individual impacts of climate change. However, the solution impacts individuals specifically by influencing their choices and making them more conscious.

I am well oriented with the climate sphere as I hold leadership positions in both the Mayors Youth Council and the Houston Youth Climate Strike. In addition, I have a strong scientific understanding of climate change because of my college level coursework in biology and chemistry, and I am currently writing a meta-analysis research paper on climate change with regards to disease and animals. My partner Wei-Jia has a strong background in computer science and coding, therefore he will be able to encode the database, and develop the relative scale. I have lived across the world from a young age, and I grew up in India. I have seen the disproportionate impacts of climate change on those who had little part to play in its cause, and my biggest goal with this project is to address this disparity in the most meaningful way possible.

I have volunteered with the Houston Youth Climate Strike on this extensively, and have interviewed minorities living in the fifth ward of Houston where environmental dumping is rampant. I have talked extensively to other members of Houston Youth Climate Strike, and read and discussed in detail about the significance of individual actions through my involvement with the Effective Altruism movement and it's ideas.