• chetradley@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    We’re undoubtedly in the midst of another mass extinction, caused by human activity. Here’s another one that will freak you out:

    • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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      5 months ago

      700 million dogs x 17 kg per dog = 12 Mt of dog

      59 million horses x 700 kg per horse = 41 Mt of horse

      If horses are 2%, then dogs are 0.5%, less than 1% just like they said

      35 million camels x 500 kg per camel = 17 Mt of camel, a little less than 1%

      I think the key thing is they’re measuring biomass, not just the number of animals, otherwise it would all be stuff like mice and rats (not to say that wouldn’t be a valid thing to look at also)

    • brisk@aussie.zone
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      5 months ago

      There’s something wrong with this data.

      The fraction of asses should be way higher.

    • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Why is that supposed to freak me out? We cultivate animals for consumption and there’s not a 1:1 absorption/usage ratio. Now add insect biomass.

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      This makes no sense… It says pets aren’t included.

      There are 500-700 million dogs worldwide. There are only just under 59 million horses.

      I don’t believe any of this as a result.

      Edit: and 35 million camels …and only a billion cattle. This entire thing is demonstrably bullshit.

      • stebo02@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        BioMASS is not about the number of animals but about their mass. Sure there’s a lot of dogs and cats but they don’t weigh as much as a camel.

      • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        It doesn’t help that we chose the meatiest animals to keep as livestock and then made sure they got even fatter than they started by any means necessary. One factory farmed cow probably weighs like 12 wild deer and a few wild rabbits for good measure.

          • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
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            5 months ago

            How isn’t it relevant? Large animals like whales make up a disproportionate amount of ‘wild animal’ biomass. But rats, mice etc will make up a sizeable proportion too while being human centric pests in much of the world.

            4% is actually worse than it looks.