Most pacific islands are high up on obesity rates so one pollution incident is not an explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_Pacific https:/

Most pacific islands are high up on obesity rates so one pollution incident is not an explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_Pacific https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_Pacific If you follow the "see also" from that article studies find the genetic factors towards becoming obese in a favorable environment to be different in different ethnic groups, from 6-85%. So a theory that fits the statistics is that colonialism brought in a favorable diet for weight gain to everywhere(?) but the percentage of people who became obese when subjected to a favorable diet was largely a factor of local genetics, genes most useful in an unfavorable environment did well and put the peoples in those places at the top of the list for obesity rates.