title: Is obesity associated with global warming?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Obesity is a national epidemic that imposes direct medical and indirect economic costs on society. Recent scholarly inquiries contend that obesity also contributes to global warming. The paper investigates the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and obesity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional state-level data for the year 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multiple regression analysis using least squares with bootstrapped standard errors and quantile regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  States with higher rates of obesity are associated with higher CO2 and CH4 emissions (p < 0.05) and marginally associated with higher N2O emissions (p < 0.10), net of other factors. Reverting to the obesity rates of the year 2000 across the entire United States could decrease greenhouse gas emissions by about two percent, representing more than 136 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Future studies should establish clear causality between obesity and emissions by using longitudinal data while controlling for other relevant factors. They should also consider identifying means to net out the potential effects of carbon sinks, conversion of CH4 to energy, cross-state diversion, disposal, and transfer of municipal solid waste, and potentially lower energy consumption from increased sedentariness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, American University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 26666, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: jsqualli@aus.edu.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Squalli
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D057232:Global Warming; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D006801:Humans; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000032:analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D009609:Nitrous Oxide; D008697:Methane
keywords: Global warming; Greenhouse gas emissions; Obesity