Chart of the day: Plants rule the carbon weight of the world

Updated

There are almost 8 billion people alive today. This sounds like a lot, but how do we really weigh up in comparison to other living things?

The carbon weight of all life on Earth is estimated at 550 gigatonnes, according to a recent study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Human beings make up only around 0.01 per cent of this biomass.

The vast majority is made up of plants and single-celled organisms such as bacteria. Even viruses outweigh us by more than three to one.

By visualising this data we can see life on Earth in a whole new light.

Keep scrolling and find out for yourself.

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Topics: biology, biological-diversity, earth-sciences

First posted