To think that obesity is 'the next climate change'

[Himalaya]

...in the sense of being a great big hairy problem which is really nobodies 'fault', just an unintended and unforeseen consequence of society getting richer.

...which is storing up huge costs (diabetes, heart disease and other health impacts) which will affect the poor more than the rich.

...and which will take serious changes in business, agriculture, transport, cities, lifestyles etc to turn around.

... and which we are in collective denial about, and have no idea what to do to seriously tackle it.

It was being in Tesco yesterday (about 80% of customers were overweight, stocking up on more of the food that got them that way) and then swimming (so many barrel shaped children and boys with man-boobs) that got me dwelling on this today.

it's a major problem, yes, but climate change is more imporrtant imo.

both linked as west to blame.

we are greedy on all levels.

No, climate change is the next climate change.
Fatness is fatness.
Individuals can do less about climate change than they can about whether they choose to put things in their mouth or not.

it is definitely a problem, and there does seem to be a lot of blame shifting and passing the buck. not always, i know that many people suffer due to medical reasons that are completely out of their hands.

but i agree with nicky, i think global warming is a bigger issue right now.

I suspect obesity may be addressed in the future by new and varying pharmaceutical drugs and surgery (I don't think this is the right solution btw). I feel less hopeful for any solution on climate change :( .

YANBU.
Obesity is a societal problem and the costs and loss of life due to complications or the condition itself are predicted to be catastrophic.

Yes, we will all be obese eventually, you can't give hunter gatherers unlimited access to food. especially sugary, processed foods, that have no place in the human diet.

I see your point actually OP. Certainly in terms of what got us to this point, I think they are both results of society getting richer, having more choice etc, and lack of forward thinking.

I also see parallels in our (ie society's) failure to tackle it. The blame is placed on us as individuals and the governments get off scot free. We are made to feel guilty for throwing a bit of cardboard in the trash instead of recycling, when massive corporations get away with polluting etc... Also we are expected to live clean healthy lifestyles (and obviously we should take responsibility for ourselves) when there is so much crap available and there isn't enough legislation about ingredients etc.

So while they are very different issues I agree that there are parallels... Mostly relating to the hypocrisy of the government. Nochange there then

Just to clarify - not to say that climate change is not a big, huge problem...but that obesity is 'the next climate change' in the sense that it is not recognised - it is like climate change pre- An Inconvienient Truth in terms of public recognition.

Noncommunicable diseases (heart disease, diabetes, stroke etc..) are bigger killers than malaria, HIV, childhood illness etc.. even in developing countries. A lot of this is diet related, and hardly laughable. Sure my ad-hoc survey in Tesco is, but this just seems to be a public health issue staring us in the face but not being addressed.

I don't think 'greed' is a good enough answer either for climate change or obesity. Technology, culture, economic systems, city planning, education all play a role. These things can be changed. Personality characteristics are harder.

There are links between the two... a healthier diet for all would mean less intensive farming of meat, production of methane etc.
Both are not being helped by big business/vested interests.
Both need serious global action.
But ultimately, I feel I have more power to ensure that me, dh and dcs stay a healthy weight than I have to have an impact on climate change.

Wook - right, also more walkable cities and public transport are good for health, and for reducing carbon emissions. Suburbs, business parks and shopping malls that plan for car dependence lead to more emissions and fatter people (...US style...)

I guess my point is though, that obesity is a public health issue, and we can't isolate ourselves from the public health costs just by controlling our own weight as individuals.

Public health will always cost money. Humans will always be falliable. Prior to this smoking was the great plague. Before that, it was communicable diease and such things as rickets.

I think this will pass and be replaced with something else.

I don't think it will pass as such but I think it'll be a couple of decades before the healthy drives from the government and various other quarters start to take effect.

Bad habits die hard. It's hard to even walk down a busy street without spotting people walking along stuffing their faces. Years ago it was almost unheard of and considered very bad manners to eat in the street.

Himalaya I totally agree, they are interwoven absolutely- poor town planning, long commutes, all sorts of bigger factors at play. However, at the end of the day, we can also look at our own individual diet and exercise, even though lack of time, green spaces, etc etc all make that somewhat more difficult

YABU. At any point, society could choose to reorganise itself to solve the obesity problem. There is a time limit on climate change and if we do not resolve it within a certain time change it will no longer be possible for society to prevent it.

It's going to be a huge problem in middle income countries like Egypt and South Africa. ALso in the middle classes of low income countries like India and China. More of a problem there because it's happening much faster than in the West and you see the shift from rich to poor happening much faster. And the genetic make up of many non-European populations means that metabolic disorders kick in at lower levles of obesity so more diabetes, CVD than in the West at the same levels. And they often still have all the infectious diseases you get in poor countries - so a doubly whammy for the health systems.

It's not just the West - it's becoming global.

Yes and no.

No:
Population growth and unsustainable depletion of finite carbon-based energy resources are far far bigger problems than the undeniable climate change.

Yes:
The solution for both obesity and the above are entirely straightforward.

Convert to a global solar/nuclear/hydrogen economy.

Eat and exercise appropriately.

Problem
Neither are going to happen, because humans and their politicians are lazy, greedy , short-sighted, power-hungry feckers deeply invested in their producer-consumer lifestyles and culture.

And consequently ...

WERE ALL DOOOOOMED:o:o

Stuckinthemiddle , if you go back far enough, the plague was the great plague of its times

Have you seen wall e? Its prophetic.

YABU. It's only storing up 'costs' for societies like the UK that have a national health service. Otherwise, fat people getting ill/dying doesn't affect anyone else. This is why they don't care about obesity in America. Whereas climate change affects absolutely everyone.

fat people getting ill/dying doesn't affect anyone else

I think that having a significant minority of the population being incapacitated will fundamentally affect the productivity of the nation and adversely skew the demand of health services, independent of whether health care is funded centrally or individually.

A lot of the crap food that is eaten is grown and processed and causing part of the problems of climate change. Fatness is indirectly causing it. It certainly is causing a strain on the healthcare system.