Obesity crisis linked to fossil fuel use
12 November 2010
Overuse of fossil fuels is the principal cause of both the planet getting hotter and people getting fatter, say UK experts, who believe the problems should be tackled together as environmental, polical and health issues.
In a new book, The energy glut, Professor Ian Roberts and Dr Phil Edwards, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, say we should treat obesity as an environmental problem with fossil fuel energy use at its heart.
New data presented in the book indicated that average body mass index (BMI) increased linearly with increased petrol use. As an example, they said levels of obesity increased 28 times in China from 1985 to 2000 - a time of massive increase in car numbers.
As the roads become more dangerous, levels of walking and cycling decline, they said, and the decrease in physical activity shifts the BMI distribution of the population as a whole further towards obesity.
"With millions of private passenger cars out on the streets converting chemical energy (petroleum) into kinetic energy (speed), our environment has become hostile and hazardous, and the normal human response is to keep well out of the way", they said. "And this has serious consequences for both health and climate change."
Decreasing reliance on car travel would result in improved health and reductions in heart disease and stroke, they said.
Last Reviewed: 12 November 2010
- Roberts I, Edwards P. The energy glut. The politics of fatness in an overheating world. Zed Books; 2010.
