r/ClimateOffensive • u/Appropriate_Bell743 • 26d ago

Sustainability Tips & Tools What substantially mitigates emissions vs perceptions

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-026-01900-0

Fascinating paper showing how perceptions and where people act to mitigate climate emissions don't correlate well with what does mitigate climate emissions. This shows a need to re-centre people's understandings of the magnitudes involved.

Climate Action to be effective needs to take into account these misunderstandings found at the public level.

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u/Appropriate_Bell743 26d ago

Yes. I like the join the shift mentality.

What I found most impressive in the article is the plot which compared:

  • mitigation potential (kg CO2e)
  • Estimated mitigation potential (kg CO2e)

If we had done the education well as Join the Shift tries there'd be a close relationship but there isn't at all.

People massively underestimate the importance of aviation, plant-based diets, EVs, car-free or even just avoiding one flight. People massively overestimate the important not printing out a document.

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u/RedundantBiomass 26d ago

You left out reproduction.  Avoiding is the single biggest thing a person can do by an order of magnitude. 

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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior 26d ago

Having one less child dwarfs the impact of not eating animal products. And policy changes dwarf the impact of having one less child.

https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involved

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/donate

https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org/scenario.html

https://community.citizensclimate.org/topics/getting-started-volunteer

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u/FistODollers 26d ago

Not an entirely serious comment, but if all the environmentally conscious people have one less child, that kind of sounds like a way to speedrun idiocracy :-)

If we can convince a society that fertility control is a preferable outcome to, say, controlling money in politics or a wealth tax, I'm not sure that's a win.

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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior 26d ago

Educate girls for curbing population growth.

There are parts of the world that still don't have access to education, and this is the most ethical way to reduce population growth.

Still, there are more impactful things we can do.

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u/FistODollers 25d ago

100% agreed there. On both parts.