The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions

or food choices are made every day, and thus require more consistent engagement or behavior response. In reality, pro-environmental behavior includes both types of actions, and their impacts on carbon emissions can vary depending on the type of action and whether recurring actions become part of an individual’s lifestyle. Given the number of years that elapsed between the course and the survey, the survey provides a glimpse into behaviors that have likely become habitual. In the waste and food categories, some recurring actions were noted by most participants. Although recycling may be viewed as a fairly common action in many Cali- fornian communities, food choices and the connection with carbon emissions is not as widely known by the general public (e.g., [30]; [31]). Given that 80% of participants reported some changes to their food choices, it appears that the course did have an impact on decision-mak- ing in this category even years after the course. 4.1.1. Estimated carbon emissions. Using the survey responses about the actions that participants took, we estimate the reductions in carbon emissions for all participants using a household carbon footprint calculator. Fig 2 also shows the contribution of each of the survey questions to the total reductions in carbon emissions. While changes to behavior around reducing waste and energy conservation at home were the most common actions taken, the largest reduction in participant-averaged carbon emissions came through transportation

Fig 2. Survey results for questions related to how often participants make choices to reduce carbon emissions as a result of the COMM 168 course. The blue bars represent the percentage of students who agreed with the survey response, while the orange bars represent the impact in carbon emissions in percent relative to the total reductions. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266.g002 The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266 February 4, 2020 8 / 23