by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:25 PM ET, Mon August 18, 2025

It seems globetrotters remain unclear about the impact of their individual actions when it comes to how much they contribute to climate change.

A newly released study from the National Academy of Sciences finds that people over-assign impact to actions that only minimally address climate change (Recycling), while simultaneously underestimating the carbon impact of actions that do far greater damage to the planet. (Translation: The damage caused by all those flights we take while exploring the planet).

According to the study, which is focused on 'climate action literacy,' some of the top individual actions that can help effectively address the climate crisis include avoiding plane flights, opting against getting a pet dog (sorry Fido and Rover), and using renewable sources of energy (Think: electric vehicles, installing solar panels on your home and the like).

However, these actions were also the actions that study participants underestimated the most when it comes to their benefits for the planet and helping to reduce climate change.?

Meanwhile, those same study participants believe that low-impact actions like recycling, are far more beneficial then they actually are.

¡°Many people misunderstand which personal actions meaningfully reduce carbon emissions,¡± says the study, which took place in the United States and involved nearly 4,000 participants.

¡°People 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," Madalina Vlasceanu, co-author of the report and a professor of environmental social sciences at Stanford University, told Associated Press.

Let¡¯s break it down, shall we?

A deeper dive

Human-driven climate change, which is caused primarily by the release of greenhouse gases (GHG) from fuels such as gasoline, oil and coal, poses one of the most urgent challenges of our time, according to the study. It¡¯s a crisis that requires a rapid reduction of GHG emissions in order to reduce global warming.

However, mass marketing efforts have historically focused more on encouraging individuals to do things like recycle or switch to energy-efficient light bulbs, rather then explaining the significant impact flying has on the planet.

The human mind also impacts the actions we gravitate toward when it comes to helping to address climate change, according to experts.

"You can see the bottle being recycled. That's visible. Whereas carbon emissions, that's invisible to the human eye. So that's why we don't associate emissions with flying," Jiaying Zhao, a professor at the University of British Columbia, told Associated Press.

Zhao added: ¡±Recycling is an almost daily action, whereas flying is less frequent. It's less discussed," she said. "As a result, people give a higher psychological weight to recycling."

Luggage sitting at the airport with a plane taking off in the background. (Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/aanbetta)

Flying, recycling, Rover and eating meat

While it¡¯s hard (and heartbreaking to believe), our universal love for man¡¯s best friend is a big contributor to climate change.

Why? Because dogs eat a great deal of meat, says the study. And meat production is big contributor to global warming.?Farm animals, which are the source of meat consumed by humans and our pets, release methane, which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

In the United States, the sectors that contribute the most emissions to climate change are transportation (28 percent), electric power (25 percent), and industry (23 percent), according to data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In the US and Wisconsin, agriculture accounts for about 10 and 18 percent, respectively, of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the University of Wisconsin report. (The state of Wisconsin is home to a prominent dairy sector.)?

Equally notable, methane from cattle digestion and stored manure makes up roughly 45 percent of the agricultural emissions nationally.

"People just don't associate pets with carbon emissions. That link is not clear in people's minds," Zhao said, according to the Associated Press.

Turning back to plane travel, this human activity emits carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which have a similarly big impact on the environment. Planes also emit contrails, the Associated Press explained, and these vapor trails prevent planet-warming gases from escaping into space.

As the Associated Press explained, one, round-trip economy-class flight via 737 between New York and Los Angeles releases in excess of 1,300 pounds of emissions per passenger, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.

According to the new study, if globetrotters were to scale back even just slightly on their annual flights, it can have a meaningful impact. The same goes for having fewer dogs in your home. Or, just eating a bit less meat yourself.

¡°We found that participants significantly underestimated the mitigation potential of behaviors like not adopting a dog or taking one fewer long-haul flights, while greatly overestimating the potential of behaviors like using efficient appliances or recycling comprehensively¡± says study.

While recycling can be a helpful way to reduce the amount of garbage headed to landfills (which is a crucially important effort on its own), it does not have a significant impact on addressing climate change. This is because there are greenhouse gases involved in transporting your recyclables, not to mention in processing them.?

What¡¯s more, the reality less than 10 percent of plastics actually get recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, there has been a mass misinformation campaign led by the oil industry, when it comes to the efficacy of recycling. NPR reported on this extensively. So, it¡¯s no wonder that people believe in the value of recycling.?

(And again, recycling does have value for other reasons, such as reducing human waste sent to landfills, even if just slightly).

Still, the key takeaway for travelers for and wide when it comes to the new study is this: Skipping even just one flight far outweighs the benefit of recycling, at least when it comes to the battle against climate change.

Finally, the study suggests that one of the ways to encourage widespread awareness of this reality is by ¡°dissemination of accurate behavioral efficacy information¡­to guide consumers toward more sustainable decisions.¡±

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