Audio By Carbonatix
Independent Journalism in Dallas Needs You
We need to raise $12,500 by August 9 to support the reporting our community depends on. Reader support keeps us independent and is playing a larger role in funding local journalism and shaping what comes next. If you believe independent local journalism matters, make a contribution today.
As if overweight individuals needed more to make them feel socially undesirable, the past couple of weeks have seen at least three different online news outlets tackle the subject of human obesity and its possible environmental impacts, citing an increased carbon footprint. Live Science approaches the topic more sensitively than the Sun and BBC.
The subject has come up previously, in the New Yorker, who cites New Scientist:
A recent article in New Scientist suggested that the biggest problem arising from the epidemic of obesity is the additional carbon burden that fat people–who tend to eat a lot of meat and travel mostly in cars–place on the environment.
Interestingly, New Scientist’s blog also puts forth the theory that obese people actually do the world a favor through carbon sequestration, suggesting a widespread dieting effort might actually increase atmospheric carbon.
So ait a minute…You mean maybe fat can save the world?
