Obesity Causes Global Warming?

There's a new study out in The Lancet which argues that obesity contributes to global warming. I've not been able to locate the study on the journal's website, but from what John Tierney reports in the New York Times, it looks like the usual public health researcher overreach:

"The Lancet authors, Dr. Phil Edwards and Dr. Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, crunch the numbers and conclude:

'Compared with the normal weight population, the obese population consumes 18% more food energy. Additionally, more transportation fuel energy will be used to transport the increased mass of the obese population, which will increase even further if, as is likely, the overweight people in response to their increased body mass choose to walk less and drive more.

'Urban transport policies that promote walking and cycling would reduce food prices by reducing the global demand for oil, and promotion of a normal distribution of B.M.I. [Body Mass Index] would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food. Decreased car use would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus the need for biofuels, and increased physical activity levels, would reduce injury risk and air pollution, improving population health.'"

I'm not even going to begin to pick these claims apart because if this underlies the thinking of the "fat police," then how far off are we from creating a world where we are forced to step onto a scale each day and engage in forced exercise programs? I understand that public health officials really "care" and are "compassionate" and know what's best for each individual, but does anyone want to live in that world? I don't. But, then, I actually like human diversity.

This is all about as ludicrous as Al Gore's claim a couple of years ago that cigarette smoking causes global warming. But, then, if there's one thing I've noticed over the years of watching how public health sorts attack mental health issues, it's that they are often wrong and will go to any length (including fear-mongering) to "educate" the public. And, the performance of their much-touted treatments for depression have proven to be pretty unimpressive, their campaign to cut the rate of suicide in half in America by 2010 hasn't budged that rate one percentage point, and their various screening programs to catch depression are reportedly not working out so swell.

So pardon me while I go cause some global warming.