If you’re like me, you’re genuinely afraid of the global-warming future we’re facing if humankind doesn’t get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions A WHOLE LOT AND REAL FAST.

Like Al Gore and spiritual leaders from many faiths, you and me understand that global warming is a moral issue.  We also understand that unchecked global warming will wreak (and is wreaking) havoc with almost all facets of our economy ranging from food supply to the insurance industry (and we’ve already seen with AIG how human decisions affecting the insurance industry ripple throughout the entire economy).  If all that wasn’t bad enough, scientists have also predicted that continued rises in greenhouse gas emissions will deepen (and in some cases already is deepening) other existing ecological crises like water pollution,  ocean acidification, and species extinction.

So like me, I am sure you want to do every thing you can in your personal life and your civic life as a voter in the U.S.–the second largest overall greenhouse gas polluter in the world–to shrink the world’s carbon footprint.  You’ve done all the easy stuff–tires are pumped up, light bulbs are switched.  And you’ve done the smart thing by joining CLF, supporting our work on climate change solutions like energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean cars, and public transportation.

Now there’s another thing you can do to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  It’s something many of us have been meaning to do for years: LOSE WEIGHT.

That’s right, by finally shedding our unwanted pounds we could be contributing to carbon emissions cuts too.  According to the International Journal of Epidemiology, 2009, the world could save 1.1 Billion Tonnes in carbon emissions from transportation sources and from industrial food-production if a population of 1 Billion people went from being obese to being lean.  The study authors reason that the more weight a car or plane has to carry, the more fossil fuel it has to burn to get us where we are going.  In addition, the authors indicate that obese people need more food energy to make it through the day.  That’s more food we have to grow and transport to market referred to by one author as “the oil we eat.”

1.1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions is nothing to scoff at.  According to an EPA website: “[C]arbon dioxide emissions from oil combustion jumped 1.1 billion metric tons between 1960 and 2001, accounting for 40% of the total increase in U.S. carbon emissions. The transportation sector primarily drove this increase. Carbon dioxide emissions from coal also climbed 1.1 billion metric tons between 1960 and 2001, accounting for another 40% of the total increase in U.S. carbon emissions. Increased electricity generation from coal-fired power plants primarily fueled this rapid growth.”

The Journal of Epidemiology study thus provides us with yet another compelling reason to reform our big industrial food complex and the bad eating habits it’s fostered in America and other wealthy nations.  As Michael Pollan has observed : “Cheap food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of that food are charged to the future.”  Now we’ve got even more evidence that increased global warming pollution is among the many social and environmental costs we are charging to the future by fattening ourselves up.

This gives a whole new meaning to the term “Low carbon diet.”