I had a good chuckle when I read today that Health Secretary Alan Johnson had described increasing rates of the obesity in the UK as a “potential crisis on the scale of climate change”.
He managed to rather cunningly downplay climate change - a global threat to the environment and the entire human race - by implying it was only as serious as a UK-centric health issue, while also getting a few minutes media attention by indulging in theatrical hyperbole.
But, there is rather more truth to his comparison than Mr Johnson probably realises and almost certainly intended.
The truth is that climate change and obesity, whether in the UK, Australia, the United States or anywhere else, do have a common link.
Obesity is, in large part, caused by overindulgence and overconsumption.
Climate change is also, to a large degree, caused by overindulgence and overconsumption. (There are other significant contributing factors, but I’ll look at them another time.)
People in the west, and increasingly in large parts of the developing world are consuming scarce resources - relatively speaking - at an increasing rate, often simply because they can, because it’s comforting or because they’re lazy.
I’ve just watched a television commercial for an automatic can opener.
A rather moronic and pudgy looking man places a can opener on a can and then stands back as it slowly removes the top.
It’s no faster than using a hand-operated can opener, uses some sort of battery system to operate (and hence needs electricity to recharge it), and uses a lot more plastics and other materials than a basic hand can opener - which will probably last much longer.
So why does the average consumer need it?
They don’t. It’s simply another way of being self-indulgent, lazy and consumptive.
(And yes, I can see it being genuinely helpful for a relatively small group of disabled people but it’s not aimed at them - it’s aimed at the lazy able-bodied.)
It’s all part and parcel of the causes of bulging waistlines.
There are cultural factors and there are genetic factors, but over and above those the fact is that the bulk of people who are overweight or clinically obese are in that position because they are both overconsuming food and failing to work their bodies hard enough because they prefer the easy, indulgent life.
And of course, it’s all too easy to blame those other factors.
If you’re overweight or obese, it’s easy to blame cultural factors, your genetic make-up, your emotional state (caused by external factors of course), a lack of choices (jobs, public transport, foods, shops, diets, medical support etc), or the lack of a technological solution (the fabled diet/fat reduction pill for a start).
It’s the same with climate change.
Individuals say they can’t make a difference because the problem is too big, it’s too complicated, it’s down to the big companies, governments should do something, there’s a lack of meaningful choices, there’s a lack of technological solutions, there are cultural factors to consider (why should “we”, it should be “them”), and nothing can be done anyway.
What’s missing is self analysis, self responsibility, self control, and self action.
Yes, Mr Johnson, you are more right than you intended.
The solution to both climate control and obesity lies in individuals identifying their contribution to the problems, taking responsibility for their contribution, controlling their tendency to take the easier, comfortable route, and finally doing something individually to reduce their overconsumption and overindulgence.
Only when individuals do that can they work together to tackle the problems that are bigger than any one of us.
So Mr Johnson, which parts of your overconsumptive and overindulgent life will you cut out?
Very good read. And I tend to agree with what you’re saying. I’m a tad bit overweight myself but I make a conscious effort to watch what I eat and consume less energy.
I think there’s going to be a new, sort of “hip” phase of minimalism soon. Smaller cars. Smaller apartments/homes. Smaller appliances/electronics. Less packaged goods/food.
Some of that we’ve been seeing for well over a decade (cell phones get smaller every year) and some we’re just starting to see in America (from steel Cadillacs to Toyota Yaris/SMART cars). I, for one, find studio/efficiency apartments rather cool. The idea of finding furniture that serves multiple purposes to save space intrigues me.
Maybe I should start a blog about minimalism. Hmm.
Having just made a visit to some friends who are over weight and house filthy, yep have to agree with your statement ‘It’s simply another way of being self-indulgent, lazy and consumptive.’
I thought the can opener a good idea but the thought of opening the tin of junk and the fat slob sitting waiting for said tin to be opened with his stupid smirk and the look of being half starved, put me off!
[...] can’t ignore the environmental taboo 15 10 2007 I wrote yesterday that personal over-consumption of resources and indulgent lifestyles are among the causes of climate change, but they are only part of the problem and reduced personal [...]
I was musing on the link between obesity and lack of physical effort as I mowed the lawn with my push mower. The only energy used is mine, the lawn takes just a bit longer to mow and I keep fit and slim. Brilliant!
Stonehead,
I found your blog about a month ago. After reading a few posts, I knew that I had found a kindred spirit, so I went to the oldest post in the archive and read through to the present. It took quite a few hours, but they were hours very well spent.
I am leaving a comment just to say that I do agree with much of what you have said in this post. However, at least in the context of the USA (where I live), culture, politics (especially), and capitalism (especially especially), and not the individual, are the principle “agents” responsible for our high levels of obesity and other diet/lifestyle diseases (diabetes, heart disease, most cancers, amongst others).
It is often easy for people who are able to buck cultural trends to argue that it should be easy for all people to do so. However, the fact of the matter is that culture is one of the most powerful forces that humans experience, and the vast majority of people not only are not in a position to act contrary to the dictates of their culture, but are actually completely ignorant of the fact that their behavior, thoughts, interests, and desires come from the cultural horizon within which they exist (granted there is a narrow spectrum of “choice” available within it). If you look at the size of counter cultural groups as a percentage of total population, they are, in every case (and by definition), exceedingly small. For example, vegetarians make up about 1% of the US population; vegans about 1% of vegetarians. A more relevant example would be the anti-factory farming movement in the US. This movement is gaining quite a bit of momentum and is occasionally being covered in the mainstream media, yet over 98% of pork and over 99% of poultry consumed in the US still comes from factory farms.
At the urging of large capitalist concerns, the US government has for the past fifty years, as a matter of policy, promoted the overproduction of corn through its obscene subsidy system* written into the so called “Farm Bill” which comes up for renewal every five years. Our overproduction amounts to literally mountains upon mountains of cheap corn. The capitalists, seeing an opportunity, turn these mountains of corn into rivers of high fructose corn syrup and about a dozen other food additives, which pollute almost 100% of our processed food. The capitalists, through incessant pervasive advertising, have for the past five decades promoted the consumption and overconsumption of processed food over fresh food. The American is now so totally brainwashed by this incessant promotion of processed food that his cravings are not for an apple or a roasted chicken, or braised fresh cabbage, but for a highly processed artificial “fruit bar” (loaded with high fructose corn syrup and no fruit), a fried chicken sandwich from McDonald’s (loaded with high fructose corn syrup, both the breading on the chicken and the bun), and a large order of deep fried french fries (chips), potatoes being another thing we dramatically overproduce. These cravings are now the American’s fundamental cravings; they are not superficial.
Thus, as a cultural being, the American is first and foremost a consumer of corn, in all of its high fat and sugar added forms. Our laziness, our self-indulgence, and our overconsumption are very much cultural products that have been created by capitalist concerns as a way to generate profits, especially as they relate to corn. Only a lazy person can be convinced that fast food is a good choice, or that he has too little time to cook fresh food, so that when he does cook at home he cooks a processed meal that comes in a box. Only the self-indulgent person can be convinced to eat an extra large order of french fries. Only the over-consumptive person can be convinced to drink a 64 ounce Coke.
Certainly, the individual is in a position to act contrary to her culture. However, the American hears the siren calls of the capitalist corn peddlers from the moment she is born to the moment of her death, and ignoring them requires a Herculean (or, more appropriate to the analogy, an Odyssean) effort. About one out of three American children are now considered obese. Should we really blame those children when they grow up to be obese, sickly, lazy, self-indulgent, over-consumptive adults? Should we blame their parents? No, we shouldn’t, not directly. The individual shares some blame, as a consumer and supporter of this culture, but the brunt of the force of our anger (and I am angry) should fall on the capitalists and the broader culture.
Anyway, I certainly did go off, didn’t I? Apologies. Thanks for a great blog.
*The size of the subsidy payments are directly related to the number of bushels of corn grown. The largest ten percent of producers receive over sixty percent of the total subsidy payments.
Therein lies the attraction of the modern siren’s call. “It’s not my fault, it’s not my responsibility, external factors made me like this, I can do nothing.”
So we sink back into our comfortable boats as they are dragged closer and closer to the rocks.
And no, I’m not blaming those children for their situation. Nor am I blaming their parents for the situation - although they do bare a shared responsibility for it.
What I am blaming their parents for is their lethargy, their seduction and their complicity in allowing the situation to not only continue, but to get worse.
Water is coming over the sides of our boats by the bucketload, while we occasionally flick a cupful back.
There is no external force coming to the rescue, while the captains of our boats and their henchmen are complicit in the forthcoming wreck.
Only we, those parents you mention, can force our boats to slow, to halt or perhaps, just possibly, backwater.
But it takes internal motivation and will to overcome the seductive call of the sirens and I seriously wonder whether enough people really want to stop before it’s too late.
Stonehead,
When I first read over your response to my comment, I thought we were further apart than we actually are. Our only difference that I can see at this point is that I do not blame ordinary people for their inaction, or even for their active promotion of the status quo. This does not mean, however, that I am not interested in spurring them to action or that I think that “It’s not my fault, it’s not my responsibility, external factors made me like this, I can do nothing.”
The point of Odysseus as he relates to our discussion is that as an individual, Odysseus recognized that he would not be able to resist the lure of the Sirens’ call. Because he knew he was too weak to resist them, he ordered his crew to lash him to the mast of the ship, stop their own ears with plugs, and ignore his commands and pleas to release him and steer the ship towards the Sirens. Even an individual as strong-willed and powerful as Odysseus recognized that he would be helpless in the face of the power of the external forces of the Sirens. Lucky for him, he was the captain of a ship and had a loyal crew to obey his original orders, even as he fell victim to the Sirens’ call and begged and pleaded and commanded his crew to release him. It is only because his crew obeyed him that he was able to hear the Sirens and not be destroyed by them.
There are many many people out there who are in the position of Odysseus. They know the Sirens are out there. They know they are dangerous. They want to resist them. However, the vast majority of those people do not have the loyal crew to fall back on when they succumb to the call, and so, defeated, they sit down to a Big Mac, large fries, and giant Coke, or they hop into their SUVs and drive to the shopping mall.
I do think that there are “enough people who really want to stop before it’s too late.” I just think for most people it takes more than “internal motivation and will to overcome the seductive call of the sirens.” If there were a large and loyal enough crew out there (that would be us, who somehow or other made it through) to support them instead of ridicule them, those many many people would find safe passage through to a sustainable lifestyle. Eventually, those many people would be enough to silence the Sirens once and for all.
I do not think Stonehead is ridiculing the ordinary person. I think he is rightly saying that scientists, activists and self-aware people like himself can only do so much.
We are much accustomed to abrogating decision making to others so what we eat, what we wear, where we live, the house we live in, the car we drive and other choices are all decisions that are made for us.
The result is when wrong and bad decisions are made in our name, we shrug and say “not our fault, let us go back to our TVs, games and processed foods”.
I am not as far down the road as I perhaps like to imagine and it is useful to have the Stoneheads of the world shouting in my ear, but I should make my own decision to act. Even if it is tempting and easy not to.
I hope this makes sense.
I like this blog, too.
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