Carbon Cost Labels

Peter Martyn of the Toronto Star writes about "a small idea to fight climate change" (2/25). His idea is to create labels that list the carbon cost for every consumer good. The cost--in carbon emissions--of the manufacture, transport, marketing and distribution of every product available for purchase would be front and center on the product.
Would you be so determined to buy that SUV if the precise cost to the environment was pasted on the windshield next to the sticker price? Maybe a hybrid might be a better choice. Or public transportation.
The next time you're in Starbucks, imagine the menu labeled with the environmental and social cost of each $5 cup of coffee. The last time I checked, Starbucks used very little Fair Trade coffee. You overpay for a product that Starbucks pays pennies to acquire from the farmers who grow the beans. But I'm getting far afield here.
Martyn's idea takes Bill McKibben's "local food" idea a step further by labeling everything with an environmental sticker so people know exactly what kind climate havoc--or climate healing--they're causing when they make a purchasing decision.
He also has an idea how to get started with the project by using college students and their professors to compute the formulas and supercomputers to back them up.
Food for thought!