People often miscalculate climate choices, a study says. One surprise is >owning a dog
By CALEIGH WELLS
AP
Updated 12:33 PM CDT, August 13, 2025 >https://apnews.com/article/climate-choices-impact-decisions-recycling-flying-meat-a85ef43fc63c666e16f29e8ca1e43beb
It's not surprising that Americans have no idea what personal habits >contribute to significant impact on climate change and which are
meaningless that people do anyway due to marketing hype.
I take this criticism personally as I own a dog and, like the dog, I eat >meat. Well, I feel that this still gets economics wrong. It's very wrong
to blame meat consumers for the Brazilian government's encouragement of >destruction of the Amazon rainforest. That was obvious failure to
recognize that the highest and best use of that land was as a rainforest
and not for cattle grazing. So what if not doing it raises meat prices. >That's the way it is supposed to work. The rest of the world ALSO failed
to realize the benefit from maintaining the rainforest and probably
should have paid Brazil not to do it.
Cows are blamed for methane belching.
Here's a huge hint: There is nothing natural about agriculture. It >significantly alters the environment and has a huge climate impact. Soil >stores carbon, but when farms are converted to corn production for
ethanol, the soil is tilled which releases a great deal of that stored
carbon back into the atmosphere. There are no-till methods but not when
the farmer is completely changing the crop he's growing.
The top three individual actions that help the climate,
including avoiding plane flights, choosing not to get a dog and
using renewable electricity, were also the three that
participants underestimated the most. Meanwhile, the
lowest-impact actions were changing to more efficient appliances
and swapping out light bulbs, recycling, and using less energy
on washing clothes. Those were three of the top four
overestimated actions in the report.
btw, I opted out of electricity aggregation that was supposedly buying
power from a downstate solar farm. In my state, there is a convoluted
subsidy of solar and wind, with ratepayers paying surcharges. Also, it's
the same damn electrons. The last time I failed to opt out, I paid more
for the aggregation,
People often miscalculate climate choices, a study says. One surprise is owning a dog
By CALEIGH WELLS
AP
Updated 12:33 PM CDT, August 13, 2025
https://apnews.com/article/climate-choices-impact-decisions-recycling-flying-meat-a85ef43fc63c666e16f29e8ca1e43beb
It's not surprising that Americans have no idea what personal habits contribute to significant impact on climate change and which are
meaningless that people do anyway due to marketing hype.
I take this criticism personally as I own a dog and, like the dog, I eat meat. Well, I feel that this still gets economics wrong. It's very wrong
to blame meat consumers for the Brazilian government's encouragement of destruction of the Amazon rainforest. That was obvious failure to
recognize that the highest and best use of that land was as a rainforest
and not for cattle grazing. So what if not doing it raises meat prices. That's the way it is supposed to work. The rest of the world ALSO failed
to realize the benefit from maintaining the rainforest and probably
should have paid Brazil not to do it.
Cows are blamed for methane belching.
Here's a huge hint: There is nothing natural about agriculture. It significantly alters the environment and has a huge climate impact. Soil stores carbon, but when farms are converted to corn production for
ethanol, the soil is tilled which releases a great deal of that stored
carbon back into the atmosphere. There are no-till methods but not when
the farmer is completely changing the crop he's growing.
The top three individual actions that help the climate,
including avoiding plane flights, choosing not to get a dog and
using renewable electricity, were also the three that
participants underestimated the most. Meanwhile, the
lowest-impact actions were changing to more efficient appliances
and swapping out light bulbs, recycling, and using less energy
on washing clothes. Those were three of the top four
overestimated actions in the report.
btw, I opted out of electricity aggregation that was supposedly buying
power from a downstate solar farm. In my state, there is a convoluted
subsidy of solar and wind, with ratepayers paying surcharges. Also, it's
the same damn electrons. The last time I failed to opt out, I paid more
for the aggregation,
So what I take from this is that cats are still cool.
On Apr 1, 2026 at 2:11:27 AM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
People often miscalculate climate choices, a study says. One surprise is
owning a dog
By CALEIGH WELLS
AP
Updated 12:33 PM CDT, August 13, 2025
https://apnews.com/article/climate-choices-impact-decisions-recycling-flying-meat-a85ef43fc63c666e16f29e8ca1e43beb
It's not surprising that Americans have no idea what personal habits
contribute to significant impact on climate change and which are
meaningless that people do anyway due to marketing hype.
I take this criticism personally as I own a dog and, like the dog, I eat
meat. Well, I feel that this still gets economics wrong. It's very wrong
to blame meat consumers for the Brazilian government's encouragement of
destruction of the Amazon rainforest. That was obvious failure to
recognize that the highest and best use of that land was as a rainforest
and not for cattle grazing. So what if not doing it raises meat prices.
That's the way it is supposed to work. The rest of the world ALSO failed
to realize the benefit from maintaining the rainforest and probably
should have paid Brazil not to do it.
Cows are blamed for methane belching.
Here's a huge hint: There is nothing natural about agriculture. It
significantly alters the environment and has a huge climate impact. Soil
stores carbon, but when farms are converted to corn production for
ethanol, the soil is tilled which releases a great deal of that stored
carbon back into the atmosphere. There are no-till methods but not when
the farmer is completely changing the crop he's growing.
The top three individual actions that help the climate,
including avoiding plane flights, choosing not to get a dog and
using renewable electricity, were also the three that
participants underestimated the most. Meanwhile, the
lowest-impact actions were changing to more efficient appliances
and swapping out light bulbs, recycling, and using less energy
on washing clothes. Those were three of the top four
overestimated actions in the report.
btw, I opted out of electricity aggregation that was supposedly buying
power from a downstate solar farm. In my state, there is a convoluted
subsidy of solar and wind, with ratepayers paying surcharges. Also, it's
the same damn electrons. The last time I failed to opt out, I paid more
for the aggregation,
So what I take from this is that cats are still cool.
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