Think Beyond the Pump

04/28/2026

At the Hawaii Expo on Sustainability. Second from right Chris Lee is the sponsor of the bill for health-climate warning labels on gas pumps in Hawaii (2025 legislative session). On the left, Ben Sullivan and I talked about forming a HI Public Health Coalition in Support for warming labels on gas pumps.

04/10/2026

Please join us for a Zoom presentation April 20 @ 7 am Hawaii Time (link below) of new research demonstrating how health-climate warning labels at gas pumps successfully reinforce sustainable transportation norms. The session will be led by Fazli Salim, a researcher at Boston College, whose latest lead-author study currently in review in the Journal of Environmental Psychology (and a forthcoming report in the Stanford Social Innovation Review) provides the first comprehensive look at how 'warming labels' successfully disrupt the psychological barriers to sustainable transit.

Think Beyond the Pump Zoom Meeting 4/20
https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/81822770492
Meeting ID: 818 2277 0492
Passcode: 655307

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01/17/2026

Good morning. It seems the world, following the Trump Administration, has forgotten that burning fossil fuel causes climate change.

Speaking of, people who buy gas should get a health-climate warning label, we have long argued, and a soon-to-be published report in the Journal Environmental Psychology shows that such labels can "increase the intentions to reduce driving and increase use of sustainable forms of transit".

From here, we've decided to apply for a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Grant to see if a health-climate warning labels mandated for all gas pumps program, is widely supported by the public. Hint: we think it is.

11/14/2025

Sweden has "eco-labels" on all gas pumps AND electric vehicle charging stations. Their label program guides consumers towards the lowest carbon choices. This is an EV charging station label where it indicates "very low climate impact" (marked green) thanks to the electricity supplying this particular station being 2/3 renewable and 1/3 nuclear.

08/29/2025

The Trump Administration is getting rid of climate change. It's getting rid of FEMA which responds to climate change-related disasters. It will try to get rid of the Endangerment Finding. It is getting rid of weather forecasting and the data collection needed for climate change research. It is getting rid of any climate change-related information on government websites. It wants to get rid of "climate anxiety" which it knows these agencies produce, as more evidence that man-made climate change is irrefutable, and is getting worse. The Trump Administration knows the mainstream public is worried about climate change, so it is betting that if they stop the stream of information the public won't hold his fossil fuel buddies accountable. This might work.

08/03/2025

The Trump Administration says it is quitting climate change. They're not even trying to be funny about it. In reality, majorities of Americans want others to use alternatives to fossil fuel more. They consistently don't understand that most people want others to do more about climate change.

Finding a public charging station is easier than you think. The charging map on ElectricForAll.org can help you find one near you. Plus you can compare over ...

07/14/2025

Politicians who say all the right things about climate science but delay meaningful policy to address it are just plain old climate deniers.

I don’t write this post to exploit the horrors of the flooding disaster in Texas Hill Country. Drawing attention to the failed attempt by the National Weather Service to warn the public nearest to the Guadalupe River, one of the most flood prone areas in the United States, which might have been un

06/19/2025

In research started by my nonprofit Think Beyond the Pump, Dr(s) Stelios Syropoulos and Gregg Sparkman (Arizona State University and Boston College) will submit new evidence (later this summer) that public health and climate change warning labels on gas pumps effectively shift public attitudes away from fossil fuels in transportation. They aim to publish their research in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. Dr Syropoulos and Dr. Sparkman’s research (you can see initial results here) shows “warming labels”, similar to Surgeon General labels on ci******es, can be used for regulating markets for fossil fuel. Specifically, state efforts to reduce emissions in transportation depend on consumers choosing cleaner alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuel, which will need to incorporate some driver behavior change and on a permanent basis. Hawai’i and Colorado both had bills this year requiring the gas pump warnings, which died in Senate committees (the labels are law in Cambridge, MA and Sweden). Both plan to reintroduce the bills next year. Regulating consumer fossil fuel consumption for their climate-health harms comes amidst multiple lawsuits suing oil companies for failing to warn the public of the hidden harmful effects from burning fossil fuel. The research comes as the Trump Administration is rolling back key incentives for electric vehicles and censoring climate science.

06/12/2025

Colorado followed Hawaii for gas pump climate labels and used strategic rhetoric to kill the bill:

Colorado, following Hawaii , introduced HB 25-1277 that would require oil companies to disclose the climate and health effects from gasoline and diesel fuels. The bill was effectively killed by the usual chorus of fossil fuel industry opposition. But lawmakers were part of the reasonable soun

04/24/2025

Noah Rothman National Review reveals the depths of his climate denial more than any insight on how health and climate warning labels on gas pumps actually work. 350 Colorado

Colorado state lawmakers are considering legislation that would compel retailers to put labels on fuel pumps warning consumers that the product contributes t...