The Energy Glut: The Politics of Fatness in an Overheating World - Hardcover

Roberts, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848135173 ISBN 13: 9781848135178

Publisher: Zed Books, 2010

Synopsis

World-wide, over a billion adults are overweight and 300 million are officially obese. The Energy Glut expertly tells the story of energy in society, and places 'fatness' next to climate change, as manifestations of the same fundamental planetary malaise. This exciting new book argues that the pulse of fossil fuel energy released from the ground after the discovery of oil not only started the process of catastrophic climate change, but also propelled the average human weight distribution upwards. The author presents a terrifying vision of humans besieged by a food industry that uses sophisticated marketing techniques to sell us mountains of energy-dense food whilst at the same time we are functionally paralyzed with fewer opportunities to move our bodies than ever before and that the accumulation of body fat is a political, not a personal, problem. This insightful new work offers and appraises for the reader a set of personal and political de-carbonising strategies, but to tread more lightly on our world we first need to make sense of the systemic processes, and The Energy Glut takes expert first steps in this direction. 

About this title

About the Author:

Ian Roberts is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Review:

"This book is quite something.  An eminent Professor of Public Health turns his hand to forensics and pathology, clinically dissecting the fabric of what we so complacently call ‘modern civilisation’. . . The insights derived from this autopsy – about the role of governments, big business and the ‘petro-nutritional complex’ – are devastating, making ‘the energy glut’ a ‘must-read’ for anyone involved in public health, nutrition, the environment, transport and energy policy.  You may not agree with all of the conclusions, but you will be hard put to ignore the analysis.”--Jonathan Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1848135173
• ISBN 13: 9781848135178
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192