Anthropocene stats

  • We are the major form of erosion of rock.
  • We are using ~10% of the energy processed by the biosphere.
  • 83% of the earth’s land surface is influenced directly by human beings.
  • We are fixing 190 megatons of nitrogen per year, about the same amount that the entire biosphere fixes.
  • We appropriate 25% – 40% of the total net primary productivity of the planet for our use.
  • Humanity have 8x the mass of all wild land vertebrates (40 megatons), and the same biomass as all the fish and whales in the ocean. Domesticated animals have a biomass of ~100 megatons of carbon. The biomass of our animals is 20x the mass of all wild vertebrates on land, and 50% larger than the mass of all vertebrates in the ocean.
  • Only 10% of the land area is more than 48 hours from a large city.

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