A reason to not diet?

Air Pollution Raises Obesity Risk For Young Animals, Regardless of Diet

Now this research concerns itself with non-human animals (mice specifically), but it does provide interesting insight into the non-diet factors which may be at play in soaring obesity rates and the way environmental pollution influences development: A new study shows that exposure to polluted air early in life, at levels that correspond to the amount of fine particulate pollution found in many US cities, can lead to increased accumulation of abdominal fat and insulin resistance, even if a healthy diet is followed.


That's the world from researchers who exposed three-week old mice to polluted air for six hours a day, five days a week, for 10 weeks--a time period roughly corresponding in humans from being a toddler to adolescent.


The mice exposed to the polluted air had larger and more fat cells in their abdomens and higher blood sugar level than did mice fed exactly the same diet but which breathed clean air.

That explains it. So pop open that can of brew and put some ketchup on those fries - it may not really matter.

CO2 is back on the rise

Concentration in Atmosphere Reaches New Highs in 2010

Well, that didn't take long. After global emissions stalled following the worldwide recession around 2008--even falling in some otherwise heavily polluting nations like the US of A--it looks like everyone can rest assured: we're back on track with CO2 concentrations steadily a-risin' in the atmosphere.

According to a report from Reuters,

Levels of the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have risen to new highs in 2010 despite an economic slowdown in many nations that braked industrial output, data showed on Monday. Carbon dioxide, measured at Norway's Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, rose to a median 393.71 parts per million of the atmosphere in the first two weeks of March from 393.17 in the same period of 2009, extending years of gains.
Which means that despite the recession throwing a wrench in the worldwide greenhouse gas-spewing machinery, carbon emissions burning industry is back online. It's still below the pre-recession levels of rise, which had been 2 parts per million a year, but it nonetheless signals that economies reliant on fossil fuel burning have resumed expansion.

So where are the deniers?