'A wake-up call': total weight of wild mammals less than 10% of humanity's

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/18/a-wake-up-call-total-weight-of-wild-mammals-less-than-10-of-humanitys

No paywall
https://archive.is/2x39P


The total weight of Earth’s wild land mammals – from elephants to bisons and from deer to tigers – is now less than 10% of the combined tonnage of men, women and children living on the planet.

A study by scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, published this month, concludes that wild land mammals alive today have a total mass of 22m tonnes. By comparison, humanity now weighs in at a total of around 390m tonnes.

At the same time, the species we have domesticated, such as sheep and cattle, in addition to other hangers-on such as urban rodents, add a further 630m tonnes to the total mass of creatures that are now competing with wild mammals for Earth’s resources. The biomass of pigs alone is nearly double that of all wild land mammals.

The figures demonstrate starkly that humanity’s transformation of the planet’s wildernesses and natural habitats into a vast global plantation is now well under way – with devastating consequences for its wild creatures. As the study authors emphasise, the idea that Earth is a planet that still possesses great plains and jungles that are teeming with wild animals is now seriously out of kilter with reality. The natural world and its wild animals are vanishing as humanity’s population of almost eight billion individuals continues to grow.

*snip*

[SunSeeker]

1. Horrifying. nt

[flvegan]

2. Eating and breeding our way to extinction.

If only there were things we could each, individually, do to help avert that.

Oh well. Selfish species gonna selfish.

[Kaleva]

10. All life forms will go extinct at some point

That's nature. The only species that has the capability of avoiding
that fate are humans.

[VGNonly]

3. It's been estimated

that 99% of biomass was from wild animals, humans only 1% about 10,000 years ago. As of now, 98% of biomass comes from humans and the animals they consume, only 2% comes from wild animals. We are doomed...

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[nilram]

5. That's why viruses especially like us now.

So many hosts make for a real growth market.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

6. wow!!

[EYESORE 9001]

7. I don't even consider humankind's duration on 🌎 a 'good run'

All that evolutionary energy spent on developing a big brain was all for naught. We were too successful at terraforming to suit our needs without regard for other species. We’re about to find out that we’ve fouled our own nest - most likely irretrievably.

[NickB79]

8. There was a poster on the Environment forum who posted this almost a decade ago

https://democraticunderground.com/112783229

It's not exactly new data, just getting more research.

[Qutzupalotl]

9. infographic showing relative biomass of mammals