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My favorite bit about this is from a lecture by Daniel Dennett. 10K years ago, Humans and their associated animals (livestock, pets) accounted for less than 1%
by ansible 9y ago
My favorite bit about this is from a lecture by Daniel Dennett. 10K years ago, Humans and their associated animals (livestock, pets) accounted for less than 1% of the land animal biomass. Now, we account for 98% (mostly cattle).
This has had a drastic effect on the biosphere.
- mikeash 9y agoShould that be 98% of land mammals? Because I think the insects still outweigh us by quite a lot.
- Gustomaximus 9y agoI looked it up as the 98% felt quite wrong. Amazed to see the amount earthworms made up. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)
- mikeash 9y agoI had no idea either. I guess earthworms are mostly beneath (heh) our notice.
- citizen13384 9y agoSource? That seems like an awfully high percentage to be accurate.