If you are obese, you are probably more responsible for global warming than you ever thought. And your contribution to global warming is really serious and very, very significant because 400,000,000 of you are obese, a newly published research finding claims!
Your often too generous uptake of food and fuel for transport is actually placing a great strain on already depleting world resources, according to some British researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
This may be too warm to handle… The finding adds that what compounds the weighty problem is that obese and overweight people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size, adding to food shortages and higher energy prices.
By 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese, according to current World Health Organization (WHO) projections.
In the research paper published today in The Lancet, UK’s independent general medical journal, Phil Edwards PhD, Lecturer in Statistics and Ian Roberts PhD, Professor of Epidemiology say obese people contribute to global warming by walking or cycling less, fueling the demand for oil whose production process and usage we all know in relation to global warming.
Local authorities should therefore consider urban transport policies that are sustainable – decreased car use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the need for biofuels. Less food consumption will also be achieved, reducing global demand for and the price of food.
Based on the researchers’ model, nearly 40 percent of the global population is obese with a body mass index (BMI) of about 30 in comparison with normal levels of between 18 and 25.
It was found that obese people require 1,680 daily calories to sustain normal energy and another 1,280 calories to maintain daily activities, 18 percent more than someone with a stable BMI.
Because thinner people eat less and are more likely to walk than rely on cars, a slimmer population would lower demand for fuel for transportation and for agriculture which is responsible for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
Hmm… some food for thought!
Further reading: The Lancet: Transport Policy is Food Policy (registration required)
Image credit: Mr TGT via Flickr under Creative Commons
And I thought they were only annoying when in the adjacent seat on airplanes…
Now the eco-fruits really have excelled themselves with this one. Apparently global warming will lead to a rise in cases of kidney stones. You couldn’t make this stuff up unless you are that desperate to convince people of mans effect on the climate.
Where next? Global warming caused by excessive methane from polar bears? Global warming made worse by depression due to the increased brain waves used by those who suffer from it?
Pah! Eco fascism will have its day and then be ridiculed in years to come when people open their eyes.
@ Tony: Respect your opinion, but kidney stones? Uh… forgive me, but what are you talking about?
The article didn’t mention kidney stones… in fact, it didn’t blame climate change for anything. I think the author’s point is that buy consuming less, we can all be healthier and more sustainable. Sounds like a good idea to me. Count me in.
We must ban exercising. People who are really active consume much more food than passive people.
I think obese people are disgusting, they just live to eat and look like fat walking pigs…greedy, greedy people…it has nothing to do with their glands or any other excuse they come up with, it is down to the type and amount of food they shovel dow their fat mouths…
What a crock this study is. I guess then we should ban all athletics, since athletes can consume even more calories to sustain themselves especially when training or the Tour De France where they burn 9000 calories each for each stage in the race which has to be replenished. While we are at it let’s ban pro football since we know those linebackers consume more than this.
While I recognize that climate change is real and I make green choices every day including commuting by bike but sometime the “Global Warming” “apologists” go too far and I for one am getting a little sick of the lengths some of them will go to to “scare” people to change. Is change necessary..of course, but let’s use a little common sense here.
This study is ridiculous and will only further fuel prejudice and bigotry. Obese people have enough problems and issues to overcome and now they’re being blame for global warming.
BTW BMI is a lousy way to determine obesity. Its flaw is that body builders and many other athletes have a high BMI while having a body fat level of anywhere from 4-12%.
Just in honor of this I will gain 10 pounds and for every pound I will ritually burn a log of dirty, dirty wood.
“And I thought they were only annoying when in the adjacent seat on airplanes…”
THEY? So “they” includes Marlon Brando (later years), Half of our former presidents, Dizzy Gilespie… i mean are you SERIUOS? you hate yourself that much that you have to hate other people for no apparent reason than they are big?
BTW it helps to note that the extra amount of food “they” eat pales in comparison to the 25% of our food that we throw into the trash… so basically this “study” is moot.
This post was not intended to disparage anybody in any way. Rather it reports on the finding of a research project conducted in the UK for information purposes only, without bias, yet we all agree that obesity is a problem that needed tackling yesterday, see this Washington Post article.
This is not the first time, however, that obesity has been linked to global warming, see this New York Times article and this MSNBC entry.
But this latest finding has been challenged elsewhere by “obesity experts”, see this report on ABC News and this blog post on HealthBolt.
On kidney stones and global warming, see this report on ScienceDaily posted just a few days ago. The statement “And I thought they were only annoying when in the adjacent seat on airplanes…” does not originate from this post.
American car manufacturers did a study within the last 2 years which proved that obese people get much less car mileage from a gallon of gas than normal weight people. And “obese” means just that: it isn’t big, chubby, or pleasingly plump. If you can’t recognize it yet, then move to the American South. Mississippi and Georgia have some of the highest rates of obesity in the world. They also have some of the lowest incomes and highest school dropout rates in the country: factors which correlate closely with morbid obesity. The term “obesity” is not a moral judgement, it is a medical evaluation. Causes other than “issues” (please spare me the psycho-babble) are behind the obesity epidemic: reliance on cars, disappearance of outdoor “play” areas, and the manufacture and marketing of
unhealthy foods, to name the obvious.
Global warming asides, I’ve been toying with the idea of setting up an NGO where folk abroad wishing to loose weight can change a pound of flesh for a pound of flesh for the impoverished. A Pound for a Pound. Calorie Transfer.
It would work like this. I as a wieghty person will skip a meal a day for ‘x’ amount of dollars. At the end of the month I will donate the amount I have saved to an organisation that will make sure this money goes to teaching the impoverished how to grow their food,in Kenya,thus more sustainable than just a food transfer.
On the ground we would reciprocate with a blog site helping the recipients to blog their successes and gratitude. I imagine this would cause a double feel good factor for all. Anyone interested?
http://greendreams.edublogs.org
Su
Everyone should be vegetarians. thats where it’s at
As a thin and fit person I feel that fat people are a real problem in our culture and take more resources from the rest of us. We need to unite as the beautiful people and set them straight. We need to yank that fork from their bloated fingers and make them see how repulsive they are. Shame a fatty save a whale is my motto.
With the fuel crisis, airlines are raising fares, some are even charging to check bagagges, however they have always charged for overweight baggage.
Airlines should start charging higher fairs for obese passengers. They should determine a maximum allowence for _combined weight_ of passenger and their luggage and charge accordingly. Of course, in USA they will scream “discrimination”, even more if they are obese minority people, generating lawsuits galore.
Attention airline execs: you must be concerned about surcharges for obese passengers
I hope to see solutions.
Pancho Shiell http://www.panchosays.com
if your going to blame fat people for global warming now, why not blame the big mouths who talk alot like Politicians, think about it they talk so much about it that theyre using more oxygen than a fat person does (and im not joking). theyre blaming cars, fat people, over crowding in towns and cities heck theyre even blaming cows now, but they wont blame themselves
there is NO excuse for being obese. NONE! People who blame their weight issues on genetics or other ridiculous excuses are just not trying hard enough. If you took 10 obese people and put them in the middle of a jungle for a year and all they had to eat was roots, berries, nuts, and so on, those 10 people would come back significantly slimmer. You can’t eat what isn’t available. It is all about self control and the will to want to live a long, healthy life.
I don’t feel like obesity is the cause of global warming.If this is the cause then almost the world popualion is obese.If your one pound over weight then you are fat.For one pound to a 90 pound person is a lot of weight so figure that one out.People talk too much about things that has no meaning.That would mean a lot of hot air coming out of peoples mouth which in my opinion could cause global warming.It would be a lot better and cooler if people would keep their mouths shut………………………
Sam, I like your article and am surprised by some of the responses.
Compassion & help is what is required for the over consumption of food which is an addiction.
If we continue to consume at the level we are then it truly will affect more then just then the body. The whole earth is being effected. It is obvious.