Humanity's Incredible Impact on the World's Biomass

October 22, 2019 2:14 PM

Understanding the Anthropocene Extinction From CBC's Quirks and Quarks "But when it comes to animals, there's also been a major shift, from wild to domestic. Milo said our planet now has 20-fold more biomass in domesticated livestock like cows, pigs and sheep than in all the wild mammals — like elephants, caribou and whales — combined. And there are twice as many domesticated birds as there are wild ones"
posted by helmutdog (4 comments total)

And there are twice as many domesticated birds as there are wild ones

That seemed simply impossible until I considered poultry and for the very first time I am seriously considering becoming a vegetarian.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:20 PM on October 22, 2019 [10 favorites]

It's a lot of chickens, y'all.
posted by jquinby at 2:30 PM on October 22, 2019 [6 favorites]

A visualization of this from xkcd.
posted by tavella at 3:22 PM on October 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

Well, just as long as humans don’t outweigh the ants
posted by ejs at 4:53 PM on October 22, 2019 [2 favorites]