- The Weizmann Institute of Sciences has just published that by the end of this year the earth’s surface of planet Earth will have more weight than the one weighed among living beings. In other words, the combined weight of plastics, bricks, concretes and other products will for the first time exceed all animals and plants in the world. Weizmann's scientists estimate that the approximate weight of objects humans have accumulated throughout history to this day is a teratone or trillion tons. This enormous amount is expressed in zero as follows: 1.000.000.000.000 t.
These amazing figures have been calculated by a team from the Weizmann Science Institute in the Israeli city of Rehovot to show that our species is transforming the Earth. "It has a symbolic meaning, because it tells us something about the central role of humanity in shaping the world and in the situation of the Earth around us," Dr. Ron Milo, who has led the research, told the BBC. As a species, we're creating as many new artificial materials as the average weight of all people in the world. "That is why we all reflect on the role we play in all of this, on what we consume and on how we can try to strike the balance between the living world and humanity."
Scientists have calculated the combined mass of all things produced by humans from 1900 to the present, and they've compared it to the weight that all living beings on planet Earth, called biomass, make up. From plastic bottles to bricks and concretes that we use for buildings and roads, it is estimated that every 20 years on average the weight of all things produced by humans has multiplied. At the same time, the weight of living things has been decreasing, mainly due to the loss of plant life in forests and natural spaces.
Scientists knew that someday we would reach a junction. And it's estimated that the mass created by humans in 2020, such as roads, buildings and machines, probably outweighs the mass of all living things in the world. And if humanity follows the path it has taken so far, by 2040 the present artificial mass will not double, but it will triple, that is, it will go from having a trillion tons (or a teratone) to three trillion tons.
It is also estimated that humanity is currently producing an artificial mass of more than 30 Gigatonnes per year (30,0000,000,000 t/year). From a geological point of view, it is further proof that we are immersed in a new era known as the Anthropocene, that is, that the impacts that humanity is causing on Earth will be visible in the sediments and rocks of the next millions of years. The formal start date of this era was in the 1950s, when the human population and its consumption patterns accelerated in the so-called Great Acceleration, with the proliferation of new materials such as aluminum, concrete or plastic.