Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 05/17/2008 7:01:46 PM PDT by neverdem
As someone who commutes by bicycle into Manhattan, I would normally applaud any scientific rationale for more bike lanes. But some calculations in the new issue of the Lancet make me uncomfortable. The authors argue that policies promoting cycling and walking are good for the planet because they could reduce obesity — and obesity, the authors calculate, contributes to global warming.
Do we really need to give fat people one more reason to feel guilty?
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...
(Excerpt) Read more at tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com ...
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) will announce that more than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition rejecting claims of human-caused global warming. The purpose of OISM's Petition Project is to demonstrate that the claim of "settled science" and an overwhelming "consensus" in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climate damage is wrong. No such consensus or settled science exists. As indicated by the petition text and signatory list, a very large number of American scientists reject this hypothesis.
You OK?
I’m fine.
Apparently there's not enough guilt. Just look around.
Why of course, EVERYTHING adds to global warming, silly wabbit!
See my profile, point #6. OISM is a *real* legit organization (if it could be called an organization) for skeptics to be associated with.
I’m sure that they’ll get some giggles if Drs. Benjamin Franklin Pierce and B. J. Hunnicutt are still on the list of 30,000 names, when it is released. However, some jokers who spam the list do not keep it from being hugh and series.
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