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Tel Aviv (dpa) - The mass of things man-made and built worldwide could, according to an estimate, exceed the mass of all living things on earth for the first time this year.
The year 2020 could represent the turning point in this trend, according to the study by Israeli researchers published in the journal Nature.
The mass of man-made objects has doubled every 20 years over the past 100 years.
At the beginning of the 20th century it was only about three percent of the biomass.
"These results illustrate the growing influence of humans on the earth," it said in a communication on the study.
Examples of man-made things are plastic, buildings, roads, and machines.
"Everything that lives" has been defined as biomass, including fungi and bacteria, said Ron Milo from the Israeli Weizmann Institute.
Since the first agricultural revolution, people have reduced plant biomass from around two teratons (2,000,000,000,000 tons) to around one teraton at present.
Reasons are, for example, the agricultural use of soils and deforestation.
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On the other hand there is the growing production and accumulation of objects.
This has led to a "shift in the balance between the living and man-made mass".
Professor Milo and his team have studied the global changes in biomass and the mass produced by humans from 1900 to the present.
While the biomass is shrinking, the "anthropogenic mass" is growing faster and faster.
It is currently being produced to an extent of more than 30 gigatons (30,000,000,000 tons) per year.
This means that for every person in the world, objects will be created in one week that roughly correspond to their weight.
Another study in 2016 came to the conclusion that the variety of technological things - from pencils to nuclear power plants - now presumably exceeds the number of species of living things on earth.
The working group around Jan Zalasiewicz from the University of Leicester estimated the “number of species” in the technosphere to be more than a billion - more than living organisms species on earth.
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The Israeli researchers emphasize in their work that it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact timing of the turning point in the relationship between biomass and human-produced mass on earth.
In their estimates, they focused on dry weight (excluding the water component).
If the current trend continues, the mass of man-made objects will be around two to three teratons in 2040.
"This study shows how much larger than our actual" shoe size "our global footprint is," said Milo.
"We hope that we can take responsibility as a species when we have these rather shocking numbers in mind."
Bernhard Bauske, plastics expert at WWF Germany, said of the study: "It is also frightening that we now have to put everyone on earth on the scales in order to weigh the annual production of plastic."
The massive production of plastic currently has serious consequences for the environment.
“An estimated eight million tons of the non-biodegradable material end up in the oceans uncontrolled every year,” said Bauske.
"This plastic flood damages over 800 animal species living in and in the sea."
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201209-99-628782 / 5
Israeli study at Nature
Professor Ron Milo from the Israeli Weizmann Institute
Weizmann Institute in Rechovot
Report on previous study of the extent and diversity of the technosphere