The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions

decisions. For example, while only 31% of participants reported purchasing a more gas-effi- cient car, this single action accounted for 18% of all carbon emission reductions observed. In contrast, while over 90% of participants reported that they recycle more often, the combined reduction in carbon emissions only accounted for 11% of the total reductions. As shown in Fig 3, the average reduction in carbon emissions based on the participant sur- vey responses is 3.54 tons of CO2/year, with most participants between 2 and 5 tons of CO2/ year. About 5% of students reported almost no change (0–1 ton of CO2/year), and about 10% reported between 6 and 8 tons of CO2/year. Of the four primary categories of carbon emission reductions, changes in transportation were responsible for 40% of the total carbon emission Fig 3. The distribution of carbon emission reductions (tons/year) for participants (n = 104) as a result of the COMM 168 course. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266.g003 The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266 February 4, 2020 9 / 23