AS a species we struggle with carbon even though we need it to live and grow. We often use it to make a pig of ourselves as we are getting bigger because we consume too many potatoes, as well as bread, rice, sugar and other carbohydrates.

While they provide us with energy too much will make us overweight if we don’t have an active lifestyle to use up the surplus. We’re not too good at this in the UK as we are the fattest of all the European nations with one third of us obese, and another third overweight.

It’s getting worse as we drive more than many EU citizens because we favour very spread out cities and towns, with extensive suburbs and daily commuting rather than living close to, and in, the city centres as is common in Europe.

Add to this our sedentary lifestyles and we exercise less than we did in previous generations. The number of cars taking children to school is a prime example so it’s no wonder we’re getting fatter.

The fact that we can ignore our own waistbands means we’re going to pay even less attention to the CO2 carbon that is making the atmosphere obese. It’s now 408 parts per million, the equivalent of an obese body max index of 35 plus, rather than the necessary 360 for a stable climate..

The problem passes unnoticed as we drive everywhere in large cars and fly overseas for holidays rather than go by train to the local seaside resort. We complain if the avocados are expensive, or out of season fruit is not flown in from Chile.

Apparently we’ll need to learn the lesson the hard way, with war, hunger, heat stress, storms, floods, rising sea levels and wildfires, while millions of those already suffering are on the move, and looking to share our home.