Human being is the 0,01% of life on the earth, and yet it decides the fate of all species

The human being on the earth represents only 0,01% of world’s living species, and yet we hold all the planet in a way that destroyed the 83% of wild mammals. It’s a professor from Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Ron Milo, who did a study which shows what is the “weight” of human being on the earth. Milo’s team published the research in the magazine Pnas and according to them life on the earth is composed by plants for the 82%, by bacteria for 13%, by animals of all species for the 5% and then by humans for 0,01%. An huge part of living species is located on the mainland, about 86%, while only the 1% lives in the sea and the 13% underground, like bacteria. 

Nevertheless humans decide the fate of all species from the dawn of the mankind. Since this moment human being has caused a loss of 83% of wild mammals, the 50% of the plants and it changed the way of life on the earth, by domesticating animals and selecting them for its needs. 

«I hope people understand how important is the role of human being on the earth» said professor Milo. He showed with many exemples how humans turned the world towards their necessity. The 70% of flyng animals are the breeded ones, like chicken. Among the mammals we represent the 36%, while bovines and pigs are the 36%. It lefts only the 4% for animals like rhinos, giraffes and lions.

Milo explained how insignificant we are in the world’s life: humans are a third of virus, a twelfth of fishes, a seventeenth of spiders, insects and shellfish. According to Milo our eating habits have shaped the life on the earth. «I hope – said the scientist – that people could change their ideas by reading this numbers».