Could the rising obesity rate be contributing to global warming?

Question

There are so many people on this planet, and we all give off body heat, do you think really obese people give off more heat just by size / body mass? Could this be part of the reason for global warming?

Answer 1

No, there's simply not enough people.

You could argue that they produce more gas maybe because their digestion isn't perfect, but even that would be a stretch.

How they do contribute though, is that they're heavier, so it takes more gas for their cars to move them. I learned this a while back, our cars are far more efficient than say 50 years ago, however the people have gotten so much bigger that it negates some of that efficiency. I mean think about it if you've got an extra 100 lbs on you, your car has to work harder.

Also, overweight people are also partly caused by a car driven society, so they're more a symptom of a disease than a disease. We have to drive everywhere nowadays because cities are so spread out, so because we're less active we grow fatter. So the 2 go hand in hand in a way.

But it doesn't have to do with body heat. Climate change is caused by putting pollutants into the atmosphere that keep in heat, people's physical bodies alone cannot create that big of a change.

Answer 2

An interesting theory but doubtful. Of the approximately 8 billion people on the planet maybe 25% are clinically obese (the proportion is much higher in the US, about 33% obesity here).

Normally the body cools at a rate of about 3 degrees per hour until it reaches ambient. Heat normally dissipates at a rate of 5 degrees an hour until it reaches ambient. So the cooling rate (putting heat into the air) and the dissipation rate more or less cancel each other out.

How population density contributes to global warming is much more subtle. More people means more mouths to feed which means more food which means more farmland so we cut down forests to produce bread.

More people means more use of technologies that produce greenhouse gasses.

More people means a redistribution of all finite resources on the planet, a redistribution that has already and will in the future lead to armed conflict, an activity that dumps millions of tons of pollution into the environment.

But very good question.

Answer 3

Actually larger people give off proportionally less heat than smaller people because they have a smaller surface area in relation to their overall mass.

However excessive flatulence from over-eating maybe a contributing factor to the destruction of the ozone layer and production of greenhouse gases...

Answer 4

Its possible. People who are obese are more likely to use a car then to ride a bike to a certain location. If your considering obese people giving off heat .. well it is not possible.

Answer 5

This is way too silly to be a real question... do people with dark skin contribute to skin cancer since they don't absorb as much sunlight as caucasions?

Anyway, is global warming really that bad? I wasn't complaining in November and December when I was able to play golf... and I'm from Ohio!

Answer 6

Get all those people to walk around in their underwear (CLEAN underwear) and the problem is solved. Light colored underwear will reflect the solar energy back out into space and cool the earth and cause utopia to inflict itself on us! Of course some of that reflected solar energy will hit the moon, causing Lunar Warming. We must all immediately purchase Lunar Energy Credits from All Snore immediately, or we will all melt!

Answer 7

Yes...many people eating global warming.

Answer 8

I adore fat people,always have! Maybe all the rude mean selfish peeps are destroying the planet by blowing out all that hot air they blow outta there butts!