Being overweight or obese is bad. The health risks are significant. It’s common knowledge. You’re more likely to get heart disease and diabetes if you’re heavy, but could being fat whack the planet too? Experts say yes.

Think about it. I’m you’re thin taking a stroll to the store sounds like a great idea, but if you’re fat and have a hard time getting around. You’re not walking anywhere. Instead you’ll probably jump in the car for that five minute trip:

“When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler,” and food production is a major source of greenhouse gases, researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in their study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

“We need to be doing a lot more to reverse the global trend toward fatness, and recognize it as a key factor in the battle to reduce (carbon) emissions and slow climate change,” the British scientists said.

They estimated that each fat person is responsible for about one ton of carbon dioxide emissions a year more on average than each thin person, adding up to an extra one billion tons of CO2 a year in a population of one billion overweight people.

I guess walking to and fro the refrigerator doesn’t count. European experts estimate each citizen contributes 11 tons of emissions each year. Now, when you consider the obesity epidemic, I guess it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

With gasoline at $8.20 a gallon in the United Kingdom, they might want to get a handle on all this.

Via Reuters.