Susanne Posel, Contributor

Activist Post

Researchers at the BMC Public Health have published a study regarding the increasing levels of “fatness” worldwide and the impact such weight gain has on global resources. They contend that over-weight people are likening to an extra billion humans born on the planet.

Clearly, according to the study, this is not sustainable. They contend a new social meme concerning consumption, weight and population growth called “globesity” must be introduced to combat this new problem.

The target of these researchers is North America, specifically the American population. Although Americans only account for 6% of the global population, more than a third of them are considered obese.

Those of “low socioeconomic status” are susceptible to disease, lack education and failing occupational status. Their overall health, with respect to obesity is “unknown”.

While researchers estimate the global population to weight 287 million tons, 15 million of those tons are due to being overweight and 3.5 million tons are directly attributable to obesity.

The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has collected data on obesity since 2005, employing scientists to analyze the average global body weight as 137 lbs. However WHO also points out that these averages are dependent on region. WHO admonishes North America’s average body weight at 178 lbs.

Ian Roberts, professor and co-author of the study explains: “When people think about environmental sustainability, they immediately focus on population. Actually, when it comes down to it – it’s not how many mouths there are to feed, it is how much flesh there is on the planet.”

America is top on WHO’s list of fattest nations. Roberts contends that since America is admired by the rest of the world, their lack of care for their bodily health has dramatic implications for the planet. Roberts says, “If every country in the world had the same level of fatness that we see in the USA, in weight terms that would be like an extra billion people of world average body mass.”

Along with the US, Arab nations are under attack as well. Roberts blames the introduction of the automobile as the cause of their weight problems. “One of the most important determinants of average body mass index is motor vehicle gas consumption per capita. So, it is no surprise to see many of the Arab countries in the list – people eat but they move very little because they drive everywhere.”

A new social meme concerning consumption, weight and population growth is needed to change current trends. Roberts asserts that “we’ve also got to think of this fatness thing . . . it is part of the same issue of exceeding our planetary limits.”

The idea of humanity as a viable threat to the Earth’s eco-systems is permeating the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio+20 this month.

Prof Charles Godray from the Martin School at the University of Oxford, who chaired the process of writing the declaration , says “The overall message is that we need a renewed focus on both population and consumption – it’s not enough to look at one or the other. We need to look at both, because together they determine the footprint on the world.”

The UN blames “rapid unplanned urbanization” and the “globalization of unhealthy lifestyles” as the culprits of the obesity epidemic. The UN also declares that the cost of overweight and obese individuals in a drain on our global economy; and a burden indicative of large, affluent societies, like America.

The UN’s report entitled, Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases mandates that “national and global monitoring and surveillance” for reversing the epidemic of obesity is necessary to “address the epidemic”.

WHO complains about the lack of “surveillance systems and monitoring” of over-weight people are not “integrated into national health information systems”. They demand that obese people be surveilled by the healthcare industry and governmental agencies to reduce “behavioral and metabolic risk factors” in low-income communities.

WHO asserts that “strengthening surveillance is a priority at the national and global levels.” They also recommend “interventions” by healthcare professionals and governments as long as they are “cost effective”.

Along with controlling the diet of the general public, WHO asserts that vaccinations against Hepatitis B and the HPV immunization will assist in lowering the weight problem and other all health of the public.

It is clear that the UN’s focus on sustainability does not end with biodiversity climate change and the environment, but also in controlling the lifestyle of the world’s population.

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page .