The mass of artificial objects on earth can now predominate living beings

By Krista Charles

Humanity makes the difference

Itai Raveh

In terms of mass, there may now be more buildings than trees and more plastic than animals, as humans create things faster than nature can produce living biomass.

Ron Milo and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have estimated the mass of all man-made and living things on the planet. They say 2020 could be the year when human creations outweigh the biosphere.

“We are really close to the transition where there are more man-made things than living things around us,” says Milo.

The …