The Fuel Cost of Obesity

thecarchik writes "America loves to complain about gas mileage and the cost of gasoline. As it turns out, part of the problem is us. How much does it really matter? A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 1.1 percent increase in self-reported obesity, which translates into extra weight that your vehicle has to haul around. The study estimates that 1 billion extra gallons of fuel were needed to compensate for passenger weight gained between 1960 and 2002."

Comments

Re:How about

[oldspewey]

I was on a flight recently, sitting in my window seat and getting settled while the plane was still loading, when a guy came trundling down the aisle who was around 6' tall and at least 300lbs+. Turns out he was my seatmate. It was only a short flight, so as he shoved his gear into the overhead I did my best to adopt a buddhist mindset and accept the fact there would be a little encroachment into my space for the next hour or so.

Turns out this guy wasn't happy with a little encroachment and he wanted to raise the armrest between our seats - said he can't fit comfortably between the armrests and needs to raise the middle one whenever he flies. I politely told him I'd be more comfortable with the armrest down and that I'm sure we'd be able to figure it out. He decided he needed to "stand his ground" and said there's no way he can sit - even for a short flight - with the armrest down. As more and more passengers lined up behind him (I was in seat 8A IIRC, on a plane with 24 or 25 rows), the flight attendant eventually got involved and asked what was going on. I stayed polite, but told her that I bought the same coach class seat as the other guy, and that I need to keep the armrest down for my own comfort and safety.

The FA told the guy he'd either have to sit in his assigned seat with the armrest between us down, or he could move to the last row of the plane and have 2 seats all to himself (she said the flight was "almost full but not quite"). You should have seen the glare this guy gave me as he took his bag back out of the overhead and trekked off down to the last row of the plane. Screw him - I paid for 1.0 seats. I'm willing to accept 0.9 but I'm not going to cheerfully smile and accept 0.6 for the next couple hours.

The Cost of Cheap Gasoline

[handy_vandal]

The cost of (relatively) cheap gasoline? War, war, and more war. That cheap gasoline is only cheap because we're willing to bankrupt ourselves to get it.