The most in-depth study conducted on the mass of all living beings on Earth has shown that humans only represent about 0.01 percent of all life on Earth but regardless of our physical insignificance in relation to the overcrowded mass surrounding us, history has demonstrated that it is clear who owns this world.
“I hope this gives people a perspective on the dominant role that humanity now plays on Earth,” said biologist Ron Milo.
Milo and several other scientists undertook a three-year study on the current scientific literature regarding the Earth’s biomass to yield the most up-to-date and accurate estimation of the mass of all the living beings on the planet.
Plants account for 80% of the whole life on Earth
The scientists calculated the total carbon content of all living creatures on the planet and observed that the total biomass accounts for 550 Gigatons of carbon content.
Moreover, researchers noticed that about 80% of this carbon content are represented by plants.
Thus, by far, the plants account for the major mass of carbon content, about 450 Gigatons, while bacteria come on the second place with only 70 Gigatons of carbon content.
Animals represent just a small part of the all life on Earth, accounting for only 2 Gigatons of carbon content.
Humans represent only 0.01% of all the life on Earth
According to the scientists’ measurements, humans represent a biomass of only 0.06 Gigatons of carbon content which means about 0.01% out of all the life on Earth.
Interestingly, humans positively influenced the proliferation of one single mammal that serves us in many ways, namely, the cattle. As the study revealed, the cattle is leading the animal species biomass as it represents about 60% of the whole biomass of animal species.
Although humans represent only 0.01% of the life on Earth, our presence negatively influenced other species’ proliferation as scientists revealed that humans managed to decrease mammals biomass by 85% and plants biomass by 50%.
