The population will keep increasing and because of this, the aggregate weight of all living beings is also going to increase. How will this impact our planet? The question is not wrt resources utilisation, food, etc. I just want to know the impact of all that mass increasing everyday as the population keeps increasing.
In: Physics
Three points:
1. Except for solar energy, everything that contributes to increased biomass on Earth is already on Earth. It’s just converted from one form to another, but doesn’t change the overall mass of the planet. Re solar energy, most is re-radiated back out, and the rest really doesn’t weigh much compared to the mass of the planet.
2. The biomass on Earth is about 2.2 trillion metric tons, which certainly seems like a lot. But the Earth is 5.972×10^21 metric tons, a much, much larger number. Compared to the mass of the planet, the biomass is nearly insignificant.
3. Just because there’s more people living now and in the future, doesn’t mean there’s more total living beings (mass or numbers wise). While I can’t say for sure, I doubt the Earth has more biomass now than in the age of the dinosaurs.
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