Obesity and Greenhouse Gas Addiction

by Michael Tobis     Department: Earth

On Grist, Andrew Dessler makes an analogy between weight problems and greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting that greenhouse gases are to society as overeating is to individuals.

As a fat person obsessed with climate change, the analogy has not escaped me. It's really hard for me, a man of average height flirting with 300 pounds, to talk about lifestyle changes and self-restraint. I have to set up a little mental block for myself every time I talk about my favorite subject, and I hope the logic of my arguments to manage the planet better overcome the reduced credibility that my obvious difficulties in managing my own body incur.

Now there's some question about how much of my tendency to overweight is my "fault", but blame is actually not something I'm interested in. As for the science of weight control, I'm an interested observer but by no means an expert, so I won't be writing much about it here. I promise not to bore you with my dieting stories. On the other hand, I do find the connection interesting, and not in exactly the same way Andrew does.

I think, actually, the difficulties I have in managing my own habits (whether or not it is more difficult for me than for most others aside) actually give me some insight into our collective quandary. It is easy to say "well use less carbon", as easy as it is to say "ingest fewer calories", and if I had no other obligations or interests perhaps it would be easy enough to do. The fact is, though, that my long term interests are at odds with my immediate interests. My ambitions to be a scientist and a writer and a musician, an asset to the world and a thriving economic entity, don't go well with shopping, cooking and dishwashing, or with eating unpalatable foods, or with being endlessly distracted by appetite.

For a while I thought the very-low-carbohydrate solution (like geoengineering) would save me, but it turned out to have nasty side effects for me (kidney stones). So I'm back to the difficult task of balancing my long-term sustainability against my ambitions and appetites. Just like the whole world.

Well, at least I don't have economists arguing that my waistline should grow 4% per year compounded. At least there's that.

Tags: earth, greenhouse, obesity