Obesity is a threat to the planet

May 3, 2009  •  Environment  •  0 Comments

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OBESITY is a threat to the ecology of the planet, say environmental experts.

Researchers concluded that because food production is a major contributor to global warming, the more you eat, the greater the impact on climate change.

“We basically live in an ‘obesegenic’ environment now, compared to ten years ago, where food is much higher in fat content and we use public transport or cars to get everywhere”

Livestock production to feed the ever-growing demand for meat is responsible for an estimated 20 per cent of all greenhouse gasses because of the toxic methane that cows emit.

Therefore, the experts claim, if we ate less then we naturally need less food and therefore climate change would become less of a threat.

Dr Phil Edwards, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, said: “Humankind – be it Australian, Argentinian, Belgian or Canadian – is getting steadily fatter.

“We basically live in an ‘obesegenic’ environment now, compared to ten years ago, where food is much higher in fat content and we use public transport or cars to get everywhere.

Emissions

“Rearing livestock and growing the crops to feed them makes up about a fifth of the world wide greenhouse gas emissions.

“So if we needed to eat less by maintaining a healthy weight then these emissions could be reduced considerably.”

Dr Edwards and his co-researcher Professor Ian Roberts, also claim that transport-related emissions will be lower because it takes less energy to move slim people.

They estimate that a lean population of one billion people would emit 1,000 million tonnes less carbon dioxide per year compared with a fat one.

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