Reply #72: Since you ask, I weigh 117.

[anigbrowl]

I already addressed the fact that people come in different sizes and weights. The point is that to the extent obesity is preventable (and I do not argue that that is a simple matter of choice for everyone, since my weight is the result of an unusually fast metabolism), the extra weight, besides leading to health problems, costs energy whenever it is transported by mechanical means, and that the greater the degree of obesity, the more often that is necessary for the person to get around (as opposed to walking, biking, or whatever).

Your interpretations of the study language are, frankly, flawed and depend on selective quoting of the source material and a misunderstanding of statistics. In your link you suggest that authors claim "The obese are now "theorized" to possibly "be responsible for" *half* of global greenhouse gasses.". This is simply not so.

The paper observes that a population with a high number of obese people, correlated with obesity profile in developed countries which disproportionately produce CO2, maybe be responsible for up to half of global co2 emissions. That would include the thin people like you and me, because it is an observation about the population as a whole. The authors suggest that increased adiposity within that population might be responsible for approximately 0.5-1 gigaton of added emissions. Global emissions are on the order of ~28 gigatons, so this would be about 1.75% to 3.5% of CO2 emissions, not half. Specifically, this is the increase they suggest to be due to the excess weight over and above a normal BMI distribution.

Or put another way, if obesity were not as widespread as it is, we might reduce our CO2 output by something on the order of 2.5%, or 1/40th of the total.