ADMIN NOTE – This post was originally titled something else. You can read about it here. -chris
So, it’s Earth Day today. Happy Earth Day, everyone.
A colleague in the Innovation Center sent me an article she recently found on CNN (Article Here). I’m reminded of what we’ve already stated about the clear connections between the environment and personal health (The My Body My Planet White Paper).
A lean population has a much smaller carbon footprint. The motorized transportation of heavier people takes more fuel, and the extra fuel to deliver more food for that population is yet another impact. A 40% obese population requires 19% more food energy, rolling up to an additional 270 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. We all pay the price for that extra food energy.
This latest article from CNN is validating, but no less alarming than some prior observations we’ve made. With more than 1 billion humans overweight, a third of them in the obese category, one must ask fundamental questions. Those questions start with "Why?" Now, at this time in human history, we find ourselves in miserable physical condition. Not because of famine or starvation, but because of over consumption. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before, enabling us to make personal decisions with more accurate expectations, and empirical predictability. All the evidence states that we should indulge less, and should exercise more. Yet the situation worsens. Why?
CNN would attest that the cause is "the availability of food and motorized transportation." While that may be factual, it’s hardly a complete explanation. Humans have the ability to reason (at least that’s what my science teacher said), and we should be able to reason around the simple "availability" of food, and the ubiquity of modern transport. What I suspect is this: People have come to perceive indulgence in excess as a goal in life. It’s glamorized, it’s made into luxury, and therefore it represents aspirational status. It’s become our duty to get and consume as much as we can. Desire has become an occupation, and over-consumption has become the payout.
So, if that’s the problem, then what’s the answer? Fundamentally, we need to depreciate the perceived social value for this kind of habit. What about taxing excessive indulgence? I’m not talking about US Federal Income Tax, I’m talking about inter-personal "social" taxes. Taxes that diminish that false perception in the social value of overdoing it. How would society react if obese people were required to stand in a different line at the bank? Only be allowed to see movies at certain times? Only be able to order certain foods in restaurants? What would happen if society fought back the disastrous perception that it’s OK to eat yourself (and the planet) to death?
Sure, I’ll get responses like: "That’s clearly discrimination. It’s illegal. It’s hurtful to people who can’t help their situation." I won’t deny those comments. Humans are complex, emotional creatures, and the subjective perception of our own life and our best role in it is never the same for everyone. I also won’t deny that a little peer pressure goes a long way, and this is important: People will change when their culture expects them to do so. What’s being seen today as "normal" is just plain wrong. We need a major perception change, if we’re to do anything about this problem, and it’s a problem that’s affecting our very planet. It’s not just a problem with people who are overweight. It’s a problem with everyone who thinks it’s OK to be obese. That includes the makers of food, the distributors of food, the advertisers, but most of all, you and me.
What are you gonna do about it?
Popularity: 5% [?]
