Chickens weigh more than all elephants, bison, zebras, and all other wild land mammals combined.
When talking of our planet, imagine the scenes of David Attenborough, from roaming elephants to grazing bison. But all these animals are only a tiny fraction of the biomass of mammals.
We used to have a lot more wild mammals, but even 100.000 years ago, all wild land mammals only weighed as much as today's pigs!
One of the biggest ways in which humans have changed the surface of the Earth is through farm animals, and most of all through cows
A field with cows might not look like a big impact but each of those cows requires 60 kg of food per day.
And that requires a lot of space, about 1-3 football fields of grass per year, per cow
But space is limited on our planet, and so forest is cut down to make space for grassland. 1/2
Really informative
Never would’ve guessed they outweigh all wild land mammals combined. And cows? Basically living lawnmowers eating up football fields of grass. No wonder forests keep disappearing.
Never saw this coming
Excellent GK. So much space taken
2/2
This is why beef is the leading cause of deforestation.
We don't notice this in Europe because we hardly have any forest left. All the deforestation for grassland happened a few hundred years ago.
On top of that, most grassland for cows is not natural'. It's a monoculture of high protein grass with zero biodiversity. It doesn't count as nature even though it looks green.
We don't have to get rid of all cows in the world but there is literally not enough space for everyone to eat the same amount of beef and dairy as Americans and Europeans currently do.
Cows are a hot topic, even though reducing the amount of beef and dairy we consume is such a sensible solution to many environmental problems. Especially because our current levels
are not normal but a very recent phenomenon.
Does this change how you view the world? In what way?