Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Anthropogenics?


In biomass terms humans are pretty puny, accounting for only 0.01% of living things but our impact has been extraordinary (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-race-just-001-of-all-life-but-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study). Reportedly, 36% of current mammals are humans, 60% are domesticated beasts such as cows, sheep and goats and only 4% (and reducing) are wild species. The situation, in the case of birds, is only slightly less extreme with 70% being poultry (mainly chickens) and 30% being wild avian species. The extinction-impact of humans is evident in the fact that we have already eliminated more than 80% of all wild animals and 50% of plants. We are clearly on a par with the meteor strike that accounted for the dinosaurs.   

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