Global warming and the rising prevalence of obesity are well described challenges of current mankind. Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic arose as a new challenge. We here attempt to delineate their relationship with each other from our perspective. Global greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have exponentially increased since 1950. The main contributors to such greenhouse gas emissions are manufacturing and construction, transport, residential, commercial, agriculture, and land use change and forestry, combined with an increasing global population growth from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.8 billion in 2020 along with rising obesity rates since the 1980s. The current Covid-19 pandemic has caused some decline in greenhouse gas emissions by limiting mobility globally via repetitive lockdowns. Following multiple lockdowns, there was further increase in obesity in wealthier populations, malnutrition from hunger in poor populations and death from severe infection with Covid-19 and its virus variants. There is a bidirectional relationship between adiposity and global warming. With rising atmospheric air temperatures, people typically will have less adaptive thermogenesis and become less physically active, while they are producing a higher carbon footprint. To reduce obesity rates, one should be willing to learn more about the environmental impact, how to minimize consumption of energy generating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, and to reduce food waste. Diets lower in meat such as a Mediterranean diet, have been estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 72%, land use by 58%, and energy consumption by 52%.

中文翻译：

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气候变化与肥胖


全球变暖和肥胖流行率的上升是当今人类面临的挑战。最近，新冠肺炎 (COVID-19) 大流行成为一项新的挑战。我们在这里试图从我们的角度来描述他们之间的关系。自 1950 年以来，燃烧化石燃料造成的全球温室气体排放量呈指数级增长。此类温室气体排放的主要贡献者是制造业和建筑业、交通运输、住宅、商业、农业、土地利用变化和林业，以及不断增长的全球人口人口从 1800 年的 10 亿增长到 2020 年的 78 亿，同时肥胖率自 20 世纪 80 年代以来不断上升。当前的 Covid-19 大流行通过反复封锁限制了全球流动性，导致温室气体排放量有所下降。在多次封锁之后，富裕人群的肥胖率进一步增加，贫困人群因饥饿而营养不良的情况进一步增加，以及因严重感染 Covid-19 及其病毒变种而死亡的情况进一步增加。肥胖与全球变暖之间存在双向关系。随着大气温度的上升，人们的适应性生热作用通常会减弱，体力活动也会减少，同时产生的碳足迹也会增加。为了降低肥胖率，人们应该愿意更多地了解环境影响、如何最大限度地减少产生二氧化碳和其他温室气体排放的能源消耗，以及减少食物浪费。据估计，地中海饮食等低肉类饮食可减少 72% 的温室气体排放、58% 的土地使用和 52% 的能源消耗。