Item Link: Access the Resource
Date of Publication: March 1
Year of Publication: 2023
Publication City: Ottawa, ON
Publisher: Humanist Perspectives
Author(s): Madeline Weld
Just how completely we humans have reversed the typical size and food pyramid is evident by considering our biomass – the weight of all humanity on Earth. The human biomass constitutes approx. 33% of terrestrial mammalian biomass; domestic animals, almost 66%, and wild animals only about 4%.
As land mammals go, humans are quite large. We may seem small compared with elephants and moose, but we’re much bigger than most of the approximately 6,400 species of mammals. And we’re a top predator. The number of individuals in species of large body size is usually smaller than the number of individuals in small-bodied species, and the population of top predators is usually smaller than the populations of animals farther down the food chain. Therefore the fact that the human population is now 8 billion and counting is a biological anomaly. According to the United Nations, we officially hit that milestone on November 15, 2022, although some estimates have us reaching it in early 2023.
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