less food, water and
other resources and
thus promote survival.
For example, in today’s
world, a population of
smaller people would
ameliorate many of our
problems. We would
need less food, water,
farmland, and energy
to support billions of
smaller people. While
some experts may
argue that taller people are more productive, Edmundson and
Sukhatme found smallIt is well known that
er size rarely reduces taller people get highproductivity.
er-level jobs and make
more money than shorter people. This is cer15
tainly an advantage.
However,
this
does
not
prove that smaller people are less
capable.
After
all, the Ancient
Egyptians, Greeks
and Romans were
short but very
productive.
In
addition,
modern
Chinese,
Japanese, Indians
and South Koreans
have also shown
great
achievements in spite of
being
substantially shorter than
Europeans.
On an individual basis, shorter
people have faster reaction times,
greater
endurance and higher maximum oxygen uptake
per kilogram of body
mass. They are also
more agile because