There are already more human-made objects than biomass
A new study indicates that the “anthropogenic mass” has doubled every 20 years in the last century and is already more voluminous than produced by the rest of nature. In other words, our buildings, roads, and objects already weigh more than all living things on the planet.
That human activity has modified the face of the Earth and there is no one who denies it, although it is in dispute if the change is enough to consider that we have entered a new geological age called Anthropocene. Now, a team of Israeli researchers adds more arguments to the discussion with a work published in the journal Nature in which they ensure that the production and accumulation of objects made by man (the so-called “anthropogenic mass”) already exceed biomass itself. of the planet. Specifically, Ron Milo’s team estimates that humanity produces more than 30,000 million tons per year of objects and infrastructure and that we have exceeded the 1.1 teratons that the biomass constituted by the rest of living beings weighs.
Based on a series of complex calculations, the authors affirm that in the last 150 years, human beings have doubled the production of buildings, roads, and objects every 20 years and that the jump has been especially notable since 1900 when it is calculated that this anthropogenic biomass represented only 3% of the global biomass. The fact that we have contributed to the decrease in biomass itself has caused these two lines to intersect, according to their results, around the year 2020, with an uncertainty of ± 6 years. “Through this contrast of man-made mass and biomass over time,” they explain, “we present an additional dimension of human preponderance on Earth. and we provide a visual and symbolic characterization of the Anthropocene ”.
For their calculations, the authors have considered only inanimate solid objects generated by humans, without taking into account those that have been discarded or demolished or the very mass that living people represent, which is considered part of the general biomass of the Earth. . In the last 5 years, they affirm, the production of 30 gigatons per year of this material is equivalent to producing twice its mass in objects for each living person each week. This process has accelerated since 1950, during the so-called “Great Acceleration”, associated with a spectacular increase in production and consumption that has left its mark on nature. Most of this new “anthropogenic mass” is made up of buildings and roads, although there have been small variations in the material that constitutes it, with a very notable increase in the use of cement and asphalt in the last decades. Regarding the production of plastic, the authors assure that its global production is already greater than the mass of all terrestrial and marine animals combined.
The researchers also make an estimate and calculate that, if the current trend is followed, around the year 2040, humans will exceed 3 teratons of material produced by us on the planet, an impact that is added to that which we have already produced through other processes such as agriculture and livestock. Although people make up only 0.01% of the biomass, the growth of our population and our activity has modified ecosystems to alter the balance in all areas. Several recent studies also indicate that the biomass composed of wild vertebrates has become a very small portion of the planet regarding the enormous amount of livestock that we raise to feed ourselves or clothe ourselves. All this, together with overfishing and pollution of the oceans, the fact that we have wiped out a good part of the biodiversity and the alteration of the atmosphere and the carbon cycle, offers us a very unflattering image of our passage through the planet.
Reference: Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass (Nature)
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