Obesities are complicit in climate change

Worldwide, overweight people are responsible for about 700 million tons of CO2 more per year

24-Dec-2019 - USA

People who are overweight or obese make a considerable contribution to global climate change. The American obesity Society draws attention to this. If the people in question had a normal weight, 700 million tons of CO2 would be produced less per year. This corresponds to 1.6 percent of the total man-made emissions of this greenhouse gas.

More food, more transport

According to the Obesity Society, people who are overweight need more food and drink. This triggers a whole chain of CO2 emissions. Like all living things, they emit climate gas, but much more than people of normal weight. More food must be produced and transported, again an increase in CO2. In addition, transporting overweight people in cars, buses and trains leads to more fuel or electricity consumption, so that more CO2 is released into the atmosphere in this way too.

The authors of the study warn against stigmatising overweight people additionally on the basis of the current findings. They already suffered from discrimination. "The study shows that we are paying a steep price for not fighting obesity more vigorously," says Ted Kyle, founder of ConscienHealth http://conscienhealth.org , a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based organization that develops health strategies.

"Our analysis shows that combating obesity has a positive impact not only on the death rate, incidence of disease and health care costs, but also on the environment," says Faidon Magkos, who teaches and researches sport and nutrition at the University of Copenhagen and collaborated on the study.

More than one ton of CO2 on top

An overweight person produces 81 kilograms more CO2 per year than a normal weight person due to the increased metabolism. The increased food intake amounts to 593 kilograms per year. In terms of additional fuel consumption for trips and flights, it is an increase of 476 kilograms per year. Overall, overweight people cause 20 percent more emissions than normal weight people. "We are not saying that our assessment is precise," says Magkos. "But it's plausible."

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1164239/obesities-are-complicit-in-climate-change.html