All life on Earth is encapsulated in this chart: People do not account for 1%

Compared to before the human appearance, the amount of wild mammals on the mainland is only 1/7, the sea is only 1/5.

Bacteria are heavier than humans. Sounds ridiculous. But if there's a giant scale that is enough for everyone on the planet to step up, and then put it on the other side of the table to weigh all the bacteria, we'll be splashing into space like peas.

The truth is that all of the bacteria on Earth are 1,166 times heavier than humans.

Continuing to compare people with all other forms of life on the planet, we can see our smallness more clearly.

A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) lists all life on Earth by weight (measured by giga tons of carbon - Gt C, the element that marks life ). Accordingly, we humans do not account for 1% of life on this planet.

It is estimated that the Earth has about 550 giga tons of life carbon. A giga ton equals one billion tons. One ton equals 1,000 kg. It will be very difficult to imagine this huge mass. So, Vox has modeled data in PNAS research in graphical form.

These are all life on Earth, encapsulated in a chart

What you will see below is like a tower of life. Each large block of this tower represents a giga of life, and large blocks are grouped into large organisms. There are unicellular organisms (living microorganisms like amoeba), bacteria (single-celled organisms that closely resemble bacteria), fungi, bacteria, plants and animals.

As you can see, plants are dominating our world. If the life tower is an office building, plants will be the main tenant businesses that occupy dozens of floors.

Contrary to that, all the animals in the world - are gray blocks in the tower - just as small as a convenience store on the ground floor.

Plants are dominating our world.

You will see that humans are insignificant compared to other species in the animal kingdom. The arthropods (insects) are 17 times bigger than us. Even mollusks (eg oysters) are heavier than humans.

Humans are insignificant compared to other species in the animal kingdom.

Although it is small in number, we are causing great impacts on the planet.

What else is remarkable?

One fact needs to be emphasized, although humans only occupy a small biomass in the animal kingdom, we are causing great impacts on the planet. The chart above represents all current life, but it does not show things that once lived and died when people appeared and exploded.

The author of the paper in PNAS estimates that the mass of wild mammals on the mainland has been reduced by 7 times compared to before humans appeared. Similarly, undersea mammals, including whales, are now one-fifth of the past because humans have hunted many species to near extinction.

And although plants are still the form of life that dominates the Earth, scientists suspect they were twice as large before humans began deforestation for agricultural development and civilization.

To get these data, scientists had to use remote sensing satellites, combined with studies of life distribution in the ocean to gather information. Even so, they admit that there is still a lot of uncertain data.

Can't ask for more, these are still the most accurate basic insights we have about life on Earth. Every year, our planet loses millions of acres of forest.

Animals have a rate of extinction 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than before humans appeared. Particularly, primates are relatives close to us, 60% are threatened with extinction.

With this chart, we now have to know how many more creatures to keep on the planet.