The environmental impact of obesity: longitudinal evidence from the United States

- This paper assesses the relationship between obesity and greenhouse gas emissions.
- It makes use of longitudinal US state-level data over the period 1997-2011.
- The environmental impact of transportation output worsens at higher obesity rates.
- The environmental impact of farming output worsens at higher obesity rates.

ObjectiveThis paper examines the relationship between obesity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while accounting for the environmental impact of growth in transportation output and in crop and animal farming.Study designThe study makes use of US state-level longitudinal data over the 1997-2011 period.MethodsRandom effects and fixed effects estimators are employed within a multiple regression analysis framework.ResultsAfter controlling for other sources of emissions, there is evidence that the effect of transportation output on CO2 emissions worsens at obesity rates exceeding 33.7% and the effect on N2O emissions worsens at obesity rates exceeding 22.5%. In addition, the impact of crop and animal farming on N2O emissions worsens at obesity rates exceeding 20.2%.ConclusionThis paper provides significant and new insight about the causal link between obesity and environmental emissions and highlights the importance of addressing the obesity epidemic on public health and environmental grounds. Thus, mitigating GHG emissions connected to obesity requires joint effort between policymakers, public health officials, and parties from concerned economic sectors in pursuing remedial actions to reverse the current obesity trend. Various policy measures are discussed.