Taking responsibility - green spaces and obesity

Walking out from the house this morning I was struck by how many people were out and about across the fields and round the woods enjoying the early sunshine and a bit of exercise. If the area was housed over and it meant getting in a car to get to the start of a walk, I doubt most of us would have bothered. With concerns about rising rates of obesity and the unhealthy lifestyles of our society in the news today I think keeping local walking areas that are away from traffic is pretty important. I was interested to hear about Natural England's current focus on 'greener green belts'. I think we really need our green spaces. I'm not sure I go along entirely with these 'findings' that this obesity trend is not the fault of individuals though. Externalising responsibility seems a current trend. I think it's easy to feel disempowered in the UK with the pressures of development and local opinion appearing to count for so little - as in the case of Centre Parcs and Warren Wood mentioned previously in this blog. But as individuals we can and do make choices about what we eat and how we live so to suggest that responsibility doesn't lie with individuals at all seems odd to me.