Here are four areas we may see changes in greenhouse gas emissions because of the coronavirus.

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Transportation: Big Reductions

People are staying home and flying less. That’s good for the planet, Dr. Nicholas said. “For average Americans, the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions is driving,” she said. Anything that reduces driving, including working from home, “has a big impact on our climate pollution.” Avoiding air travel can have a large effect as well: one round-trip flight from New York to London, she said, produces as much greenhouse gas emissions as the preventive climate impact of nearly eight years of recycling. Dr. Nicholas was an author of a 2018 study that examines greenhouse gas emissions reductions in actions people take to fight climate change, and is currently writing a book about personal action and the climate crisis.

The actual effects on your greenhouse gas emissions of staying home will greatly depend on where you live, Dr. Jones said. For the roughly 25 percent of Americans living in the suburbs and another 25 percent in rural areas, cutting out a commute often means driving far less. But about 50 percent of Americans live in urban areas, and for those who use mass transit, avoiding a commute doesn’t necessarily cause much of a dip in emissions. The University of California, Berkeley, has suspended in-person instruction, and Dr. Jones said, “I commute by train and the train is going with or without me and everyone else, so I don’t think there’s an impact there.”

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Food: A Big Maybe

Dr. Jones has done research into the relative carbon footprints of dining at home or dining out, but, so far, the results are fuzzy. “We don’t have conclusive evidence yet,” he said, citing the comparative efficiency benefits of eating out and the waste involved in making meals at home. “We waste about 25 percent of the food that we buy,” he said. If you drive long distances to go to a favorite place — like Austinites who drive more than 30 miles to Lockhart, Tex., for excellent barbecue, “that’s going to swamp the emissions from your food.”