"I didn't want that to be our horizon, this terrible system we've created," Shirkey said.

He has many ideas on how change at the municipal level can have tangible impacts on climate change. He believes the warning labels will act as a better incentive for drivers to think about their transportation habits — more so than price at the pump.

Even if prices at the pumps increased to reflect costs for rebuilding flooding coastal regions, aid for famine and drought or loss of species related to climate change, people wouldn't necessarily consider what contributed to the price change.

"As price goes up and down, we're still just fuelling our cars," Shirkey said. "What this does is it builds feedback … it takes that faraway consequence and brings it into the here and now."

Our Horizon believes that the labels will result in individuals making changes, whether that's opting for a more fuel-efficient vehicle or leaving their keys at home and taking public transit or bicycling.

Shirkey did the legal research to ensure that municipalities are in a position to create bylaws for these warning labels. If the oil companies were to fight back, municipalities would likely win a legal battle, he said.

Shirkey completed his undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University. Reimer-Watts will be attending the University of Waterloo for its new Climate Change graduate degree program.

They say that whichever municipality passes a bylaw implementing these warning labels will change history, paving the road for other municipalities to follow. They both feel Waterloo Region has the potential to be that leader.

"Waterloo strikes us as being cutting-edge, innovative, leaders in all of Canada and I think there are strong environmental values here as well," Shirkey said. "People here will get this."