--- title: "Scientists Find Evidence That You’re a Hypocrite Who’s Causing More Than Your Share of Climate Change" description: "When it comes to our personal contributions to climate change, most people have no clue how damaging some of their individual actions can be." date: "2025-08-19" modified: "2025-08-19" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/climate-change-individual-actions-study" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "carbon" - "carbon emissions" - "carbon footprint" - "climate change" --- # Scientists Find Evidence That You’re a Hypocrite Who’s Causing More Than Your Share of Climate Change ![When it comes to our personal contributions to climate change, most people have no clue how damaging some of their individual actions can be.]() *An angry, tangled hair research scientist is pointing his index finger at the viewer. With a stern expression on his face, and one eyebrow raised, he stares over his eyeglasses directly at the camera. He is a balding senior adult man with a gray beard and mustache. He is wearing a white lab coat over his casual polo shirt. Canon 5D Mark III. \Image: Getty Images\* When it comes to personal contributions to climate change, most Americans seem to have no clue how damaging some of their individual actions can be. Folks who happily recycle and switch to more energy-efficient appliances, [per a recent study]() published in the *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus* journal, likely have a far larger carbon footprint than they realize. When it comes to personal behavioral changes to mitigate climate change, not all interventions are created equal. As the [*Associated Press* notes]() in a story about the study, taking fewer flights, using renewable electricity, and forgoing ownership of a protein-hungry dog are considered the most effective individual actions people can do to reduce their carbon footprints. Easier stuff, like recycling, buying energy-efficient appliances and lightbulbs, and using less energy on clothes-washing, are some of the least effective. Led by psychological and communications researchers from New York University, Yale, Stanford, and the Copenhagen Business School, the survey-based study recruited nearly 4,000 people online to ask them about individual behaviors that can harm the climate. As paper co-author and Stanford environmental social scientist Madalina Vlasceanu told the *AP*, the survey participants tended to "over-assign impact to actually pretty low-impact actions such as recycling, and underestimate the actual carbon impact of behaviors much more carbon intensive, like flying or eating meat." Jiaying Zhao, an associate professor of psychology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study, suggested this gap in knowledge isn't that surprising given our different relationships to these different interventions. "Recycling is an almost daily action, whereas flying is less frequent. It’s less discussed," Zhao told the *AP*. "As a result, people give a higher psychological weight to recycling." Ultimately, it boils down to what is visible and what is not. "You can see the bottle being recycled. That’s visible," she continued. "Whereas carbon emissions, that’s invisible to the human eye. So that’s why we don’t associate emissions with flying." With flying and eating meat — and, by extension, owning a dog that eats meat-based food — among the top culprits adding to your individual carbon footprint, folks who fly a lot or have dogs may be unaware of just how much they're polluting. In a [landmark 2017 study]() out of the University of California at Los Angeles, researchers found that in the United States alone, feeding dogs — and cats, for good measure — meat-based foods accounts for some 64 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, which is the equivalent of emissions from 13.6 million cars on the road per year. Still, there hasn't been much public messaging about how pets can contribute to climate change — and as Vlasceanu put it in **a** [statement]() about the study, "nobody understands" carbon emissions anyway. "It’s so abstract," she said, "you’ll forget it immediately." **More on climate change:** [*Scientists Just Found Who's Causing Global Warming*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()