Oil Up, Weight Down?

Oil prices reached a record high yesterday as Hurricane Humberto pounded Texas refineries and caused production problems:

Oil first traded over $80 a barrel on Wednesday after the Energy Department reported declines in crude and gasoline inventories and refinery activity last week.

While at first, this might seem like more bad news for the oil industry and your wallet, the increase in gas prices might just do what thousands of fitness experts have been trying to do for years – trim the fat from American asses:

Higher US gasoline prices may slim more than just wallets, according to a study from Washington University in St. Louis.

Entitled "A Silver Lining? The Connection between Gas Prices and Obesity," the study found that an additional $1 per gallon in real gasoline prices would reduce US obesity by 15 percent after five years.

The report, written by Charles Courtemanche for his doctoral dissertation in health economics, found that 13 percent of the rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to falling pump prices. Gas hit a low of less than $1.50 per gallon in 2000 before moving back to a record high of $3.22 in May 2007.

Good news, right? Maybe not. The study claims the fat-loss will come with an increase in walking and bicycling, and the idea that more Americans will eat out less and cook healthier meals at home. What they failed to take into account is a service that many people will gladly take advantage of: Home delivery. How many obese Americans who sit in front of the television or the computer screen gorging on chips and dumping two-liters of Mountain Dew down their throats will stop and think, "Hey, why don't I walk to the grocery store, walk home, then cook a healthy meal?" Not many. When food is just a phone call away, there is hardly any reason to pay the toll of increasing gasoline prices and sacrifice the convenience of prepared food.

But then again, the obesity epidemic could have a bright side, too – fewer babies:

Soaring levels of obesity in the western world are expected to trigger a major new infertility crisis among women, doctors warn today. The Lancet reports that the obesity epidemic will leave more couples struggling to conceive as women suffer more fertility-related problems.

And fewer babies means less carbon emissions:

Instead of burning down our numbers with oil and gas, we might follow the advice of the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, who tells Weisman that everyone in the world should stop having kids all at once. Weisman isn't up for quite so drastic a measure, but he makes his own pitch, moderate in comparison: Let's cut the birth rate to one child per couple, for a few generations at least. The population would dwindle by about 5 billion people over the next century, he says, ensuring the habitability of the Earth for the 1.6 billion who remained. At that point, they could all reap the rewards of a more spacious planet, sharing in "the growing joy of watching the world daily become more wonderful." It seems like a notion from the fringe, but Weisman's book has become a mainstream best seller. Could population control be the next big thing in green culture?

So let's eat ourselves to extinction – the world depends on it.