This issue of the journal highlights issues which significantly impact the physical, mental and environmental health of a generation of children and adolescents. Whether it is mute exposure to passive smoking,1 the mental stress faced by professional scholars2 or the frightening emergence of a new generation of young 'maturity' onset diabetics,3 it is a clarion call for parents, society and the medical fraternity to stand up and take responsibility. Pharmacotherapy and/or bariatric surgery for childhood/adolescent obesity brings with it moral debates on ethics and child rights.9,34‒36 For extreme situations, anti-obesity medication may be an obligatory inclusion in the pharmacopoeia.12 Advances in hygiene, science, automation and the consequent longevity will all come to naught if the weighty shall inherit the earth. Through the simple remedial interventions of good parenting, legislation of food products and appropriate advertising, the snowballing epidemic of obesity can not only be halted but reversed. It would be a pity if human evolution leads to a shorter life expectancy punctuated by obesity-associated illnesses—for lack of the simple wisdom of balanced eating and exercise.