Overweight people eat more than thin people and are more likely to travel by car, making excess body weight doubly bad for the environment, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine."When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler," and food production is a major source of greenhouse gases, researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in their study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
"We need to be doing a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness, and recognise it as a key factor in the battle to reduce (carbon) emissions and slow climate change," the British scientists said.
They estimated that each fat person is responsible for about one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions a year more on average than each thin person, adding up to an extra one billion tonnes of CO2 a year in a population of one billion overweight people.
The European Union estimates each EU citizen accounts for 11 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.
What bloody bollocks, its not like we fart like dog or burp like a dairy heifer all day. Thank god we have John Key at the helm - Helen would have instituted a fart tax on fatties on the back of this research. Hell, now she is in the UN , she will be claiming that poor people should stay thin to save the planet from the ravages of global warming!
Where are the economists doing the counter study looking at our high rate of consumerism that helps stoke flagging economies? We should be revered, put on a pedestal ( albeit with a sturdy base) as citizens to emulate. After all we live hard and die quick from the good life. That saves a hell of a lot of hot air.
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