Fat people Cause global warming

Karen, You mean an Elephant CAN"T hang over a cliff from a daisy?  I am  flabbergasted

Of course it can, Al! You just have to get together the statistics and charts that prove it!

My favorite example of the use of statistics. In another phase of my life, part of my job description required that I do data entry. At the time I received my evaluation, listed among the ratings was the statistic that I had a .5% error rate, relating to number of mistakes made during input.

I countered that statistic saying, "No, no, no, no, no! That statistic SHOULD read that I have a 99.5% ACCURACY rate!"

It's all in how you look at it!

The article could have sited red meat eaters as a global warming cause. If more people eat meat we need more cows to feed them who in turn create more methyane.

I think people got bored of blaming flatulent cows... I dunno, I think it's fun to blame flatulent cows for as many environmental ills as possible.

Barry, Anyone who like to do aerobics to get their heart rate up do indeed increase O2 intake and co2 output.  Again the research was only looking at what heavy folks did not comapered with skinny people who eat and have to work out. 

I am a published researcher.  Most folks know me here as politisite but my research is is under my real name Albert N. Milliron

Diurnal and seasonal rhythms of melatonin, cortisol and testosterone in interior Alaska.

Come on people.  This makes perfect sense just as many of your comments do.  All variables will have an impact on your overall carbon footprint.  Consuming more food (or more beef, specifically) does create more greenhouse gasses.  There is a term in economics called "ceterus paribus" and it means all things hald constant.  That is the only way scientists can make conclusions based on quantitative research.  So YES, if you travel more or by more poluting means; buy more manufactured goods; heat or cool a larger home; don't recycle; or eat more you ARE responsible for more greenhouse gasses that someone who eats less, "ceterus paribus".  In other words being fat is ONE contributing factor in isolation.  You cannot conclude that, therefore all fat people generate more greenhouse gasses than all thin people.  Just like people who drive SUV's.  I drive an SUV and it gets about 10 MPG so most people would think I am an environmemntal bad guy.  However I drive a fraction of the miles in a year than average and so I actually contribute LESS than average.  So if you are fat and you want to be "green" just make changes to offset the extra energy you consume in your larger diet.

but before you find the stats you have to get a research grant. Without that what's the use?

I'd LOVE to see the paperwork for that research grant!

I was making a comparison there my Friend, everyone pollutes in one way or another, blaming fat people,would be the same as blaming meat eaters over vegetarians, one is a cow which farts versus veggies which  require herbicides, pesticides, sometimes fungicides.  Both require transportation to market, hence both pollute almost as equally.  For sake of argument, scientists should stop pointing fingers and get on with the problem of solving the problem instead of useless junk science reporting on every tiny cause of it, there are way more skinny people than fat people in the world, so fat people are only a blip in the big scheme of things. Imagine how much this scientific study polluted, getting to interview all these fat people, then the faxes, news printing, edits, colour copies, printing and binding the  documents etc,  surprising no one does studies on the pollution aspects of that!

Good analogy East ray

fat people dont cause it and dont call them fat, its over weight