Obesity creates more pollution? (1 Viewer)

[Barnabas Collins]

Obesity drives up U.S. fuel appetite - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

If expanding waistlines increase gas consumption then wouldn't obesity be an environmental as well as a health issue? What do you think of these researcher's conclusions?

 

[RightinNYC]

Obesity drives up U.S. fuel appetite - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

If expanding waistlines increase gas consumption then wouldn't obesity be an environmental as well as a health issue? What do you think of these researcher's conclusions?

The study seems ridiculous on its face.

He compared national health data and passenger-car fuel consumption from 1960 to 2003 to find that because of a heftier population, we use 983 million gallons of gas more each year than we did in the slimmer '60s. That amount could fill 1.7 million gas tanks.

How did he control for things like variance in car weight, fuel efficiency, fuel mixture, etc? Aside from that, the average driver has changed significantly now, with women far more likely to be on the road. (Don't get me started on the problems THAT has caused, that's another thread. )

It seems to me like its a pretty weak conclusion drawn from a pretty weak set of data.

I mean, think about it. How much has the average weight of a person increased since 1960? 20 lbs? Considering that the average car weighs 2000 lbs, that's a 1% increase, which is probably nothing compared to weight fluctuation in vehicles.