--- title: "Global Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Living Biomass" description: "According to a new study published in the reputable journal Nature this week, the total mass of human-made materials outweighs all living biomass." date: "2020-12-10" modified: "2020-12-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/human-made-mass-outweighs-living-biomass" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "biomass" - "earth" - "the digest" --- # Global Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Living Biomass ![According to a new study published in the reputable journal Nature this week, the total mass of human-made materials outweighs all living biomass.]() *\Image: Fulanke-Wong\* ## Massive Shift According to a [new study]() published in the prestigious journal *Nature* this week, the total mass of human-made materials now outweighs the entirety of the Earth's living biomass. "We find that Earth is exactly at the crossover point; in the year 2020 (±6), the anthropogenic mass, which has recently doubled roughly every 20 years, will surpass all global living biomass," the researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, conclude in their paper. ## Big Footprint The researchers' goal was to figure out the balance between the entirety of humanity's footprint on this planet — anything from concrete to bricks and asphalt — and all living land and marine creatures, as well as plants, added together. "Since the first agricultural revolution, humanity has roughly halved the mass of plants," the paper reads. "While modern agriculture utilizes an increasing land area for growing crops, the total mass of domesticated crops is vastly outweighed by the loss of plant mass resulting from deforestation, forest management and other land-use changes." ## Ms. Anthropocene Unsurprisingly, these changes have had a severe impact on the environment. "These trends in global biomass have affected the carbon cycle and human health," the researchers wrote. The researchers conclude that "the current geological epoch be renamed the Anthropocene" to better reflect "impact of human activities on our planet." The name has been proposed for a number of years, replacing the official moniker of our current epoch "Holocene," which roughly translates to "entirely new" or "recent." **READ MORE:** [Human-made materials now outweigh Earth's entire biomass – study]() \[*The Guardian*\] **More on human impact:** [*Human Composting is Better for the Environment*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()