14 DAY TRIAL // The recent news in the headlines, which claim that fat people could somehow change the planet if they simply started eating less, have generated a lot of debate on the Internet. While some agree and say that the obese and overweight should start consuming less, others maintain that it's simply rude to hang all the problems of the world on a minority of individuals, LiveScience reports. Yesterday's news were based on a research published by experts at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which draws attention to some statistics related to obese persons and also to the fact that the incidence of the disease seems to be on the rise worldwide, which could generate a much greater problem in the future.
“Because food production is a major contributor to global warming, a lean population, such as that seen in Vietnam, will consume almost 20 percent less food and produce fewer greenhouse gases than a population in which 40 percent of people are obese (close to that seen in the USA today). Transport-related emissions will also be lower because it takes less energy to transport slim people. The researchers estimate that a lean population of 1 billion people would emit 1.0 GT (1,000 million tons) less carbon dioxide equivalents per year compared with a fat one,” the study from which all the talks have started says.
“When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler. The heavier our bodies become, the harder and more unpleasant it is to move about in them and the more dependent we become on our cars. Staying slim is good for health and for the environment. We need to be doing a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness, and recognize it as a key factor in the battle to reduce emissions and slow climate change,” researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts, who have authored the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine paper, explain in another statement.
Moving past the health and environmental issues, an ethical problem arises – what is there to be done with these people? Do slimmer citizens have the right to take any actions against them? Common sense would say “no,” because, then, a precedent would be set up, and all those belonging to groups that have an abnormally high carbon footprint would find themselves in the public spotlight, just like obese individuals do now. Over the past few years, more and more scientific studies have linked obesity to a number of medical conditions, as well as to numerous socio-economic changes, but ethicists uphold that these papers shouldn't be perceived as a “green light” for slimmer people to start picking on the overweight.
In the US, for example, where a very large portion of the population is overweight, airlines have decided that these people need to buy two seats, if they want to travel comfortably and not disturb other passengers. Conversely, in Canada, laws at a national level state that the obese need to receive two seats in airplanes absolutely free of charge. The real discussion on the matter of the British study should be finding the most correct course of action that solves the problem of obese people's impact on the environment and on others, without making them feel marginalized or punished.