A new assessment of all planetary life based on biomass – or weight – has revealed humanity to be ‘both insignificant and utterly dominant’. The Israeli study estimates that the world’s 7.6 billion people make up just 0.01% of the mass of all living things. (Worms have a combined mass three times greater than us.) On this measure, plants are easily the dominant life form, making up 82% of all living matter, with bacteria (much of it buried beneath the Earth’s surface) accounting for 13%, and the remainder – insects, fungi, fish, animals – making just 5%. Yet despite comprising such a tiny proportion, humanity has had a vast impact on planetary life. Since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals. Farmed poultry now accounts for 70% of all birds, while 60% of mammals are livestock, mainly cattle and pigs; 36% are humans; and only 4% are wild creatures.
Study reported in The Guardian on May 21, 2018
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