There is no doubt Americans are getting fatter and fatter. The latest stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the number of people identifying themselves as obese grew 1.1 percent -- an additional 2.4 million people -- between 2007 and 2009. The number of states with an obesity rate of 30 percent or more tripled, to nine, during the same time.
Beyond the myriad health implications of our expanding waistlines comes another side effect: We're burning more gasoline. As Consumer Reports notes, obesity is prompting more people to buy larger vehicles, which burn more fuel -- and emit more CO2.
It cites a 2006 study by Entrepreneur.com that found almost 1 billion gallons of gasoline burned each year can be attributed to passenger weight gain between 1960 and 2002. That's .7 percent of all fuel burned in passenger vehicles annually. Every one pound increase in average passenger weight boosts annual fuel consumption by more than 39 million gallons.
Another study, conducted last year by Resources for the Future, found that as obesity rates climbed, so too did the number of vans, SUVs and pickups sold -- from 16 percent of all vehicles in the 1970s to more than 40 percent in recent years. Granted, part of the increase also can be attributed to the fact such vehicles became more mainstream and suited to daily use.
But the same study found that a 10 percent increase in obesity rates cut the average fuel economy of new vehicles demanded by 2.5 percent. In other words, as our waistlines grew, our concern with fuel economy shrank.
Photo: batgeek / Flickr
