Some who worry about the impact of humans on wildlife might find it reassuring that — according to a new study — humans make up just 0.01 percent of the biomass on earth. But most of that biomass is trees and other plants, which make up 82 percent of life on earth.
Those who wish to be more alarmist focus on the study’s finding that humans and their domestic livestock make up 96 percent of the biomass of mammals on earth. All mammalian wildlife make up the other four percent.
The study also found that humans have wiped out 83 percent of mammals, which leads some to say we are decimating wildlife. In fact, we decimated it millennia ago, whenever humans entered a new ecosystem, while today extinction rates for mammals at least have slowed. (Most of the high extinction rates you hear about are of insects.) Continue reading
