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Obesity Causes Global Warming
The list of ills attributable to obesity keeps growing: Last week, obese people were accused of causing global warming.
This conclusion comes from Sheldon Jacobson of the University of Illinois, U. S. , and a doctoral student, Laura McLay. Their study calculates how much extra gasoline is needed to haul fat Americans around. The answer, they say, is a billion gallons of gas per year. It means an extra 11 million tons of carbon dioxide.
There has been calls for taxes on junk food in recent years. U. S. economist Martin Schmidt suggests a tax on fast food delivered to people's cars. "We tax cigarettes partly because of their health cost," Schmidt said. "Similarly, leading a lazy lifestyle will end up costing taxpayers more. "
U. S. political scientist Eric Oliver said his first instinct was to laugh at these gas and fast food arguments. But such claims are getting attention.
At the U. S. Obesity Society's annual meeting, one person correlated obesity with car accident deaths, and another correlated obesity with suicides. No one asked whether there was really a cause-and-effect relationship. "The funny thing was that everyone took it seriously," Oliver said.
In a 1960s study, children were shown drawings of children with disabilities and without them, a drawing of an obese child. They were asked which they would want for a friend? The obese child was picked last.
Three researchers recently repeated the study using college students. Once again, ahnost no one, not even obese people, liked the obese person. "Obesity was stigmatized," the researchers said.
But, researchers say, getting thin is not like quitting smoking. People struggle to stop smoking, and, in the end, many succeed. Obesity is different. But, not because obese people don't care. Science has shown that they have limited personal control over their weight.