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Recently, humankind has been revealed as a lot more insignificant than other forms of life, but at the same time, extremely dominant and with an incredible impact in the grand scheme of things. According to a new study, which the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently published, the 7.6 billion people on Earth represent only 0.01% of all living things on the planet. However, since our apparition, the human race has caused the extinction of 83% of all wild mammals and 50% of all plants. At the same time, the livestock that humans own is abundant.
It’s interesting that this new study is the first of its kind to assess the weight of every class of living creatures. At the same time, it seems that it has managed to turn certain assumptions on their heads. It seems that while bacteria are abundant on the planet, 13%, plants are the most common form of life, 82% of everything. What remains, all of the other creatures including fungi, animals and fish represent only 5% of all living things. Also, the majority of life is land-based, with ocean life representing just 1% of all biomass.
Humans are a minority, but an impactful one
According to said Professor Ron Milo, the leader of this interesting study, he was very surprised that nobody had done such an assessment before. These results should offer people a brand-new perspective regarding the role they play on Earth. It’s also interesting that this huge influence that humans have on the planet has prompted experts to declare a new geological era: the Anthropocene.
Proof of this stand the bones of domestic chicken that exist everywhere on the planet. It seems that farmed poultry represents 70% of all birds on Earth. About 60% of all mammals on the planet are livestock, while 36% are human and only 4% are wild animals.
Image source: wikimedia
