Obesity as a cause of global warming?

That pesky obesity thing. First it forced Disneyland to increase the sizes of its theme-park costumes, and hospitals to buy larger hoists and beds. Now, in a letter published Friday in the medical journal Lancet, two scientists write that obese people are disproportionately responsible for high food prices and greenhouse gas emissions because they consume 18% more food energy due to their greater body mass -- and require increased quantities of fuel to transport themselves and the food they eat. "Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food," write the authors, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the evocatively named London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

We don't imagine Edwards and Roberts wrote their letter to be mean -- their point seems to be that it would be good for various reasons if urban policies worked to promote biking and walking -- and we haven't yet heard of mobs with torches roving the streets in search of those with BMIs of 30 or above. Nonetheless, Yale University has been quick with a news release urging "caution on obesity and climate change link."

Declares Kelly Brownell, director of the university's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, "Saying that obese people are contributing to climate change is highly stigmatizing and assigns blame to the individuals who are obese rather than the conditions driving the obesity in the first place." Things, he says, like junk food marketing aimed at children, the demise of P.E. programs, behemoth portions offered up in restaurants, more.

I guess, too, we could always point a finger at those lean people we all know who have such high, wasteful metabolisms they can eat what they want, lift not a finger yet stay skinny as a rake. And how can I defend a friend of mine who consumes thousands of calories so he can get on his bicycle and go for 100-mile rides -- only to end up at the very same place he started from, only hungrier? (And by the way, he drives a car -- five miles -- to work.)

--Rosie Mestel

photo credit: Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times

The politics and science of obesity

Anyone who doesn’t know there’s a obesity crisis going on has no doubt been living their entire life on a catwalk. Adults are fat, kids are fat, there seems no end in sight, and a McDonald’s Crispy Ranch Snack Wrap has 340 calories and 17 grams of fat.

For those who hunger to understand the physiological, political and cultural implications of obesity, the California Science Center is sponsoring a panel discussion titled "The Science and Politics of Obesity: Who’s Policing Your Plate?" as part of the center’s Science Matters speakers program. It’s being held Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. in the center's Wallis Annenberg Building.

"A lot of issues have been in the paper recently about obesity," says Diane Perlov, senior vice president of exhibits. "This seemed like a very timely issue — New York passed a ruling on transfats, and there are other legislative issues dealing with obesity." Panel members include Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic, who will speak on the toll obesity takes on the body; Dr. Antronette K. Yancey of UCLA’s department of health services, who will address the disparities in communities that don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables or safe parks; Manal Aboelata, program director of the Prevention Institute in Oakland, who will tackle corporate and government responsibility; and J. Justin Wilson with the Center for Consumer Freedom in Washington, D.C., who will examine consumer responsibility. KNBC-TV Channel 4's reporter Conan Nolan will moderate.

The panel coincides with "Body Worlds 3", a reprise of a provocative exhibit at the science center featuring plastinated cadavers and body parts, the better to see what’s really inside the human body (it runs through Sept. 7). One particular specimen is a cross section slice of a 300-pound man whose fat encroached upon his vital organs. Seeing that is a wake-up call for many who see the exhibit. Says Perlov, "You think of fat as being just underneath the skin."

Reservations are required; register online, or call (213) 744-2420.

--Jeannine Stein

Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images