That researchers need to use “fashionable” catch phrases to ensure funding is not uncommon. That “global warming” is one such catch phrase which has been exploited by a variety of disciplines to justify the most inane work which has then been passed off as cutting-edge research is not new. It has been particularly evident for the last 15 years or so. Linking any research project in any discipline to “global warming” has increased the probability of getting funded. Linking obesity via human respiration to global warming is one such example of trivialising the already trivial.
Even IF global warming is a problem (which I doubt) and IF carbon dioxide emissions are a cause (which is unlikely) and IF human production of carbon dioxide is significant (which it is not) and IF human respiration produces sufficient carbon dioxide to matter (and it is hardly measurable) and IF general obesity in the human population increases the total of vegetable and animal matter on the planet (which it does not), THEN this so-called research would come up to the level of being just silly.
As such it is just high quality, idiot-research.
The latest nonsense is from the Robert Gordon University in Scotland. But the International Journal of Obesity will not gain much in reputation by publishing such drivel.
International Journal of Obesity , (26 July 2011) | doi:10.1038/ijo.2011.151, Global warming: is weight loss a solution?, A Gryka, J Broom and C Rolland
But even such nonsense – which is not new – can still capture headlines.
2011: Researchers Suggest Link Between Obesity & Global Warming
The k2p blog 