When the blame hunt goes too far

This would be funny if it wasn't sad: blame the world's problems on fat people. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have suggested that obese people are to partly blame both for the global food crisis and global warming, because they need more calories (thus requiring more food) and because they are more likely to use transport, thus causing emissions through private car use or by placing an additional strain on public transportation systems.

I have the highest respect for LSHTM, and some of my friends hold degrees from that respectable institution. However this demonstrates that either their recruitment standards have hit rock bottom or economics and climate aren't their cup of tea.

The association between higher calorie consumption and reduced food supply to the world's poor is as far-fetched as linking global warming to pirates. Taking certain parts of the southern US as a case study, high rates of obesity are caused mainly by high fat content due to frying everything fryable, a legacy of poor food supply that required addition of calories in order to ensure survival. The food "crisis" is due to rising prices of staples such as rice and wheat, not frying oil. Claim dismissed.

Moreover, the influence of agriculture on rising fuel costs is certainly not due to obese people eating unhealthily, as most of the unhealthy diet is processed food rather than crops. If we compare increased agricultural fuel demand to the increased demand in China and India in general, the contribution of increased agricultural production (if any) is negligible. Costs of fuel used to feed obese people are NOT causing higher food prices for the world's poor. Claim dismissed.

The next claim, that obese people cause greater strain on transportation systems, is just as miscalculated as the previous one. Although morbidly obese people might place higher strains on small private cars but not SUVs, the additional weight of several obese people on a BUS is negligible in proportion to the total weight of the bus itself and its average-weighing passengers. If we got obese people off public transport the total carbon savings wouldn't justify such discrimination. Claim dismissed.

Obese people place a strain on healthcare systems, that's the problem. The LSHTM should focus more on helping the world by aiding the fight against diseases such as malaria, cholera, dengue and other ailments that afflict the world's poor.