Human-made objects now weigh more than all living things combined, according to a study by the Weizmann Institute of Science. Infrastructure, plastics, glass, and paper contribute to the mass, while biomass, mainly plants, make up the majority of living things. Human production has increased significantly since the early 20th century, with enough material produced weekly to exceed the weight of the entire human population. Human activity is also responsible for destroying rainforests and producing over 3.5 million tons of waste daily.
Humanity has been busy. In a large study that analyzed all of humanity’s construction efforts, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, came to the conclusion that, perhaps for the first time in history, the combined weight of all objects artificial is now greater than the weight of all living things.
While most of the mass created comes from infrastructure — bridges, buildings, roads and the like — the researchers looked at everything from plastics and glass to paper. On the other side of the scale was biomass, which is weighted most heavily by plants – about 90% of all living things – but which also contains everything from people to bacteria and fungi.
According to the findings, human production has increased dramatically since the early 20th century, when human-produced items accounted for only 20% of all global biomass. Today, the rate of production has reached the point that enough material is produced on a weekly basis to exceed the body weight of the entire human population.
What are we doing to the world:
The human population has grown more in the last 50 years than in the previous 4 million years.
Every year, human action destroys an area of rainforest the size of Great Britain, or 50 million acres.
Humans are responsible for producing over 3.5 million tons of waste every day.
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