Fat People Cause Global Warming

[Dustdevil]

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/...Name=healthNews

Obesity contributes to global warming: study

Thu May 15, 2008 7:03pm EDT

By Michael Kahn

GENEVA (Reuters) - Obesity contributes to global warming, too.

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, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.

This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school's researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet on Friday.

"We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility," Edwards said in a telephone interview. "Obesity is a key part of the big picture."

At least 400 million adults worldwide are obese. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

In their model, the researchers pegged 40 percent of the global population as obese with a body mass index of near 30. Many nations are fast approaching or have surpassed this level, Edwards said.

BMI is a calculation of height to weight, and the normal range is usually considered to be 18 to 25, with more than 25 considered overweight and above 30 obese.

The researchers 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, Edwards said.

This is also important because 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he added.

The next step is quantifying how much a heavier population is contributing to climate change, higher fuel prices and food shortages, he added.

"Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food," Edwards and Roberts wrote.

(Editing by Stephen Weeks)

Edited April 22, 2009 by Dustdevil

[TDP]

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/...Name=healthNews

Obesity contributes to global warming: study

Thu May 15, 2008 7:03pm EDT

By Michael Kahn

GENEVA (Reuters) - Obesity contributes to global warming, too.

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, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.

This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school's researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet on Friday.

"We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility," Edwards said in a telephone interview. "Obesity is a key part of the big picture."

At least 400 million adults worldwide are obese. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

In their model, the researchers pegged 40 percent of the global population as obese with a body mass index of near 30. Many nations are fast approaching or have surpassed this level, Edwards said.

BMI is a calculation of height to weight, and the normal range is usually considered to be 18 to 25, with more than 25 considered overweight and above 30 obese.

The researchers 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, Edwards said.

This is also important because 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he added.

The next step is quantifying how much a heavier population is contributing to climate change, higher fuel prices and food shortages, he added.

"Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food," Edwards and Roberts wrote.

(Editing by Stephen Weeks)

and stupid people are breeding on a consistent basis,but what can you do right?

[WolfmanHarris]

It seems to me like another "So what?!" study that does nothing more than cloud the issue of climate change. Somehow I think it will be easier to switch everyone over to renewable energy than it will be to pry the cheeseburger from the fingers of the obese. We'd be better off encouraging the obese to get fatter until they become bedridden and thus end the problem of their increased fuel costs. Of course the increased health costs come into effect so it might be a moot point...

[2wheelinemt]

???????? study

Don't understand why they would even waist tere time doing such a study. But sounds like another reason to try and control us with more information on global warming. They must be running out of real information about global warming to report on.

2wheelie

[spenac]

No different than government funding a study of why dead gold fish float. Just more high quality use of tax payer money.

Edited April 23, 2009 by spenac

[Siffiliss]

Somehow I think it will be easier to switch everyone over to renewable energy than it will be to pry the cheeseburger from the fingers of the obese.

Hahaha!

Edited April 23, 2009 by Siffiliss

[FireMedic65]

Somehow I think it will be easier to switch everyone over to renewable energy than it will be to pry the cheeseburger from the fingers of the obese.

mmmmm cheeseburger! *drools*

[Richard B the EMT]

No different than government funding a study of why dead gold fish float. Just more high quality use of tax payer money.

Is this from the same folks that discovered the information that you couldn't possibly live without:

Cat urine glows under "black light"

[Dustdevil]

Don't understand why they would even waist tere time doing such a study

ROFL! Now that is the funniest Freudian slip we have seen here in a very long time!

It seems to me like another "So what?!" study that does nothing more than cloud the issue of climate change.

To me it seems to actually clarify the issue by illustrating just how absurd it is. Given a government grant to "study" it, anything can be shown to contribute to climate change. So these study results, as ridiculous as they seem on the surface, actually serve to help people realise that the entire issue is bogus.

Edited April 23, 2009 by Dustdevil

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm playing the Race card. Most white people are obese so this study must be racist.