Animal Obesity and Climate Change

Alan Johnson made a link between obesity and climate change. He said that the public health threat posed by obesity is "a potential crisis on the scale of climate change".

That's possibly true. But it overlooks the more direct connection between obesity and climate change: that food choices and lifestyles associated with obesity very carbon intensive. Heavily refined sugars and starches use extraordinary amounts of carbon, and meat production contributes as much as 1/5 of global carbon emissions.

That said, I read an article in The Guardian last week about animal obesity. Approximately 5

0 % of UK pets are overweight (like this hedgehog). This unnatural and careless state has been criticized on animal welfare grounds for good reason. And, in my opinion, it should be criticized on environmental grounds too!