What happened to all the Professors?

Telegraph - Cancun summit

This is, without a doubt, one of the most hilarious, pseudo scientific pieces of nonsense I have ever had the pleasure of reading, from the mouth of a Professor no less.  I strongly suggest you take a look for yourself!

“The world is getting hotter and the world is getting fatter. Fundamentally fossil fuel energy is the cause of both."

Whilst I understand the "link" between lack of activity and fossil fuel powered modes of transport or sitting on your ass in front of a computer, these are far from a new phenomenon to the human species.  If "Professor" Roberts had the intuition usually required of academics and actually done some research he may have realised that there were plenty of outdated technologies in use well before the development of fossil fuels, which required no more effort than today’s modern equivalents.  Take a horse drawn carriage or the typewriter, probably the two most fitting substitutes, neither of which requires fossil fuels and neither of which are any more physically demanding on the user than the modern car or computer.

In fact I would very much like to argue the contrary to Ian’s view, fossil fuels have had a profoundly positive impact on our health.  For a start fossil fuel aided manufacturing processes have lead to superior quality, cheaper gym equipment, it also powers our gyms air conditioning systems, allowing us to workout for longer.  Fossil fuel aided manufacturing systems have enabled mass production of health orientated products, canned Slim Fast, bottled water, vitamin supplements, etc.  Finally, the very transport technology which Ian criticises has allowed for superior trade in fresh, healthy produce.  Fruit from across the globe now reaches us in days rather than weeks.

To summarise, I think Professor Roberts should take is theory back to the drawing board.  I doubt very many people would argue that the typewriter, telephone or humble pen and paper was a leading cause of obesity, or that fossil fuels have not benefited mankind in phenomenal way. However it seems that as long as the big evil CO² is in thrown in these "scientists" can claim whatever they like, what ever happened to the scientific method?