One trillion – that is an incredibly large number. In the International System of Units it is designated with the prefix “Tera”, which is derived from the Greek word for “monster” and has so far been used mainly to describe immaterial quantities. The net electricity consumption in Germany 2013 was around 512 Terawatt hours. And in the field of information technology, storage capacities and transmission rates have developed surprisingly quickly from kilograms to megabits, gigas and terabits. But now the monster can also be touched: Israeli researchers have estimated the mass of all buildings, infrastructures and other artifacts built by humans on earth at 1.1 teratons.

In this section we always present astonishing, impressive, informative and funny figures from the fields of IT, science, art, business, politics and of course mathematics on Tuesdays.

A milestone in the Anthropocene As biologists, Ron Milo and his colleagues at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science are primarily interested in living matter. In the past few years they have worked intensively on determining the total mass of all earthly living beings, subdivided into categories such as plants, bacteria, fungi or animals. The biological metabolism is more and more influenced by the socio-economic metabolism of human civilization, they note in a study now published in the journal Nature, with which they have come to a remarkable result: According to this, the mass of man-made artifacts in the current year caught up with global biomass. The scientists see this as both a quantitative and symbolic confirmation of the theory of the Anthropocene, according to which humans have ushered in a new geological age through their influence on nature.

Of course nobody can put all trees, bushes, flowers and other living things on a scale and then weigh all buildings, streets, machines and other objects. Instead, Milo’s research team relied on existing statistics, estimates and model calculations that were weighed against each other and the results averaged. The study is therefore fraught with some uncertainty.

Some assignments are questionable In addition, some assignments can be questioned. For example, farmed fields and livestock are counted as biomass, while industrially processed wood that was built into buildings is classified as a man-made artifact. The determination of the point in time at which the mass of human-shaped matter exceeds the biomass also depends on whether the water content of the biomass and the waste of human matter are also weighed. The year 2020 as the crossing point of the developments only applies to dry biomass and does not take into account human waste. If the garbage had been included, people would have already 2013 produced more artifacts than biomass. If the water in the biomass is also weighed, then people only overtake nature in the year 2031 (with garbage) or 2037 (without garbage)

When people will outstrip nature with their mass production or have already surpassed it, is therefore ultimately a question of consideration. The researchers have calculated several scenarios for this purpose: If you add the carbon dioxide produced by humans to the anthropogenic mass, the total amount was already in the year 1998 over global biomass.

The study focuses on the years since 1900. During this time, mankind has, as it were, set to the final sprint: While the biomass has remained almost constant since then at a good 1.1 teratons (dry) and 2.2 teratons (moist), the mass of human artifacts has increased rapidly. At the beginning of 20. Century it was equivalent to 004 gigatons just three percent of the dry biomass, has but since then doubled roughly every twenty years. When it came to catching up, the field was led for a long time by aggregates such as crushed stone and gravel, but in recent years they had to relinquish the top position to concrete. Together, these two material groups make up around 35 percent of the anthropogenic mass.

Gigantic growth continues Since the 1930 years ago, after a cautious start, the asphalt conquered a respectable share of around 6 percent and is thus in fourth place , just behind the bricks, whose importance has steadily declined since the middle of the century. Metals and wood / glass / plastic follow in fifth and sixth positions. “If this development continues,” the researchers write, “the man-made mass, including waste, will be reduced by the year 2040 be more than three teratons – and thus almost three times the dry biomass. ”

The biomass, on the other hand, becomes 90 Percent dominated by plants. 1.1 teratons of buildings, parking lots, railway lines and other infrastructures are therefore only offset by around 0.9 teratons of trees and bushes. The animals will not be able to help turn the tide: They bring in a total of only 4 gigatons (0, 004 Tt) on the scales – and are thus far behind the plastic, which with 8 gigatons brings twice the mass into the race.

No, this disproportion can change only the people, whose share of the biomass the researchers with only 0, Quantify percent. But it won’t be easy. Because this minority, which is negligibly small in terms of its mass, owes its spectacular victory over nature to a struggle on two fronts: Before mankind took off 1900 started to overtake with the massive production of artifacts, it had already weakened the enemy decisively. Since the agricultural revolution 3000 years ago, Ron Milo and his research team note that humans have succeeded in killing about half of the crops.

“Subdue the earth!” Was the divine mandate at that time. “Mission accomplished” is the conclusion of the Israeli study. Whether this is an occasion for satisfaction or even pride, and what it has to do with the almost simultaneous overcoming of the tera threshold in the national budgets of the richest countries, is another question. It’s definitely monstrous.

(mho)