You're about to go on vacation and must decide how to get there. Do you know what method of travel contributes the most greenhouse gas emissions?
Imagine you're ordering lunch in a restaurant, selecting a protein to add to your salad. What would be your best choice as far as carbon emissions? How would you judge? Or you're about to go on vacation and must decide how to get there. What method of travel would contribute the most in greenhouse gas emissions? If you don't know, you're not alone. Researchers from Columbia Business School say that many ordinary Americans can't estimate the carbon footprint of their everyday choices accurately — whether booking a hotel room or buying a burger. Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter. The ubiquity of carbon incompetence is at the center of the recent study "Widespread misestimates of greenhouse gas emissions suggest low carbon competence." As you might expect, experts have a better grasp of the subject but for everyone else, political ideology, concern about climate change or confidence in their carbon knowledge failed to help. That's a problem for people who want to live sustainably. Consumers appear increasingly willing to pay a premium for greener choices; but if they're going to make a difference, they must choose correctly when they buy, boycott or invest. Otherwise they can easily fall victim to greenwashing, when companies and others market their products and services as more environmentally friendly than they really are. Humans are responsible for nearly all of the increases in greenhouse gas emissions over the last 150 years, the researchers write, so it's reasonable to think of emissions as the product of collective consumer decisions. And while there is a need for…