KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is increasing the space between rows of seats on its planes. I’m not surprised — the Dutch are the tallest people on earth these days, as I discovered when I had to crane my neck around the Brobdingnagians in front of me in an Amsterdam movie theater.
Like many Europeans, the Dutch are also very concerned about the environment. As the KLM example illustrates, though, the good nutrition that makes them (and other Northern Europeans) so tall imposes negative externalities on the environment: Fewer Dutchmen per plane flight means more fuel consumed per passenger, and more pollution. The higher weight that goes with extra height requires more calories to maintain, generating more pollution to produce the tall person’s food.
So maybe we Americans are doing our part for the environment by being relatively short. Now if we could also reduce our weight, so that we consume fewer calories (the average American adult is officially classified as overweight, and 30 percent of Americans are classified as obese), we could actually contribute to environmental protection in a way that the tall Europeans cannot!
and 
. You can also watch it on 
In one of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels he portrays future Chinamen as nearly microscopic, having genetically bred themselves smaller and smaller so that they demanded less and less of the world they live in. How progressive!
The reason given by KLM is providing more leg space, but can it be that they are just getting less customers at the moment. By reducing the weight of the plane, it will actually reduce fuel consumption as well. So good for environment and my long legs. Win-win…
If tall people have such negative externalities on the world, then the best solution to such problem is to charge an externality tax on the tall people, but it will be unethical to do so. Yes it may help the environment, but being tall is sometimes something you cannot control; what if a certain person’s parents were tall, then he has a higher chance of becoming a tall person. I don’t think there is a direct solution for the problem concerning tall people and the environment.
All else equal, doesn’t a taller person have a shorter life expectancy?
A shorter life implies less environmental impact.
Minor nit: genes determine height more so than nutrition. Genes that favor height are dominant on balance, so people get taller in places where the gene pool gets well mixed (e.g. cities) as opposed to places where it does not.
Not only will reducing their weight will help with the environmental protection, but also they would be helping themselves. A win win, since food costs money, and with the current economic situation, spending less money on food will help people with their expenses. Also then they would be healthier, and won’t have to spend on doctors, which are also a great expense. Since this is a “variable”, whether being fat or not, this is something Americans can decide. Being short or not, that’s sort of already fixed, not much we can do. So help in the only way you can!
@6 Americans may not be an ethnic group, but they are a cultural group. Nutrition being a cultural value (and the one contributing to the increased height of the Dutch), it makes sense to talk about the average American.
Then there is this from Canada
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081120/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_obesity
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday.
The high court declined to hear an appeal by Canadian airlines of a decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency that people who are “functionally disabled by obesity” deserve to have two seats for one fare.
The airlines had lost an appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in May and had sought to launch a fresh appeal at the Supreme Court. The court’s decision not to hear a new appeal means the one-person-one-fare policy stands.
The appeal had been launched by Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet.