Breathing exacerbates the climate crisis, how can you reduce your impact? Do your part….
The only solution is, you guessed it: a breath tax!
That will solve all the climate problems and keep us safe.
Pollutants from gas stoves kill 40,000 Europeans each year, report finds
Dumbest shiite I read all day. But Guardian scientists take stupid to the next level on a daily basis.
Study says harmful gases linked to heart and lung disease shave nearly two years off a person’s life
Gas stoves kill 40,000 Europeans each year by pumping pollutants into their lungs, a report has found, a death toll twice as high as that from car crashes.
The cookers spew harmful gases linked to heart and lung disease but experts warn there is little public awareness of their dangers. On average, using a gas stove shaves nearly two years off a person’s life, according to a study of households in the EU and UK.
“The extent of the problem is far worse than we thought,” said lead author Juana María Delgado-Saborit, who runs the environmental health research lab at Jaume I University in Spain.
Fat people causing climate change, says Sir Jonathan Porritt
Fat people are harming the planet by contributing to climate change, according to Sir Jonathan Porritt, the Government’s chief green adviser.
Echoing the famous slogan “fat is a feminist issue”, Sir Jonathan, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, said “fat is a climate change issue”.
He pointed out overweight people eat more protein-rich food such as beef or lamb, which is responsible for producing greenhouse gases because of the toxic methane livestock emits. He also said obese people are more likely to use cars rather than walk or cycle, therefore producing more carbon emissions.
The former Green Party politician, who has caused controversy before by suggesting people should not have more than two children to prevent over-population, said the Government should be encouraging people who are above the recommended body mass index to lose weight not only to improve their health but to help the environment.
Almost 1 in 4 adults in England is currently obese, and if trends continue, by 2050, nine in 10 adults will be overweight or obese. BMI is calculated by dividing weight by height squared
In a lecture to representatives of the food industry, Sir Jonathan said obesity was costing the NHS an estimated £7.7 billion every year – nine per cent of its total budget. But he also said it was causing problems for the global environment.
“The World Health Organisation recently published some data showing that each overweight person causes an additional one tonne of CO2 to be emitted every year.,” he said. “With one billion people judged to be overweight around the world – of whom at least 300 million are obese – that’s an additional one billion tonnes.”
The Co-Director of The Prince of Wales’s Business and Environment Programme said the Government has not only to address the obesity issue but cut carbon emissions by at least 34 per cent by 2020.
He said the two issues should be tackled together by making sure nutritional guidelines point out the dangers to the environment of eating too much red meat, as well as the health implications.
And he said transport policy could encourage walking and cycling not only to cut carbon emissions but to improve health. Education should teach children about the environmental damage caused by overeating as well as the health implications and food policy can encourage people to eat more “low carbon” foods such as locally sourced fruit and vegetables.
“We should think of obesity as an environmental challenge as well as a health issue because of the negative impacts on the environment caused by overweight people and obesity as well as the problem it causes to their own health,” he said.
Dr Tim Lobstein, director of policy at International Association for the Study of Obesity, agreed over-consumption is an environmental issue as well as a health problem, but said overweight people should not be victimised as a result.
“You cannot blame fat people for global warming – that is just victimisation – but there is a problem with food policy that has encouraged over-consumption and is spoiling the environment,” he said.