Friday, May 16, 2008

Mea Culpa

link
I'm obese again, btw.
[O]bese people['s] higher consumption of food has a two-fold effect, researchers said.

First of all the increasing demand for food... contributes to the rising cost of fuel.... [O]bese people are likely to rely on transport more and put more strain on that transport because of their mass, which again drives up prices and usage....

Phil Edwards, who co-authored the article, said: "Urban transport policies that promote walking and cycling would reduce food prices by reducing the global demand for oil and promotion of a normal weight."
The first step in effective problem solving is knowing who to blame. If only we showed prudence with our caloric intake! Then we could build all of the coal plants we wanted.
But Dr David Haslam, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was "stretching it a bit" to blame the obese in the way.

"Really, it is discriminatory towards obese people. They are an easy target at the moment, but I think the causes of climate change and rising food prices is much more complex."
Fatty apologist!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

or simple...

Aren't weight gain and global warming both functions of cheap oil? Cheap oil equals cheap food equals CO2.

So I was recently in oil-rich Norway, and I was surprised that folks there seemed remarkably portly for European standards.

My guess is that peak oil will take care of the obesity issue in a jif.

Rionn Fears Malechem said...

This was the first of two recent comments I've read about how fat Norwegians are. The other one pointed out gas was $11/gallon there. I also feel in my heart that Norwegians pay a lot for food.

We'll see about the peak oil and obesity. I also think we'll see reduced obesity as transport costs increase, but because it'll result in a more varied local diet.