Which choices contribute most to climate change? Most people miss the mark, one study found

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FILE - A traveler passes United Airlines planes at San Francisco International Airport on May 8, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

It turns out many Americans aren't great at identifying which personal decisions contribute most to climate change.

A study recently published by the National Academy of Sciences found that when asked to rank actions, such as swapping a car that uses gasoline for an electric one, carpooling or reducing food waste, participants weren’t very accurate when assessing how much those actions contributed to climate change, which is caused mostly by the release of greenhouse gases that happen when fuels like gasoline, oil and coal are burned.

"People over-assign impact to actually