Weight of
the World

By 2020, the weight of global human-made mass was more than all of living biomass. We’ve predicted that this will double by 2037. The weight of the world rests on our shoulders. Start the timeline to track our growing impact.

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Sources & methodology:

All data was taken from the nature.com article entitled ‘Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass’ published on 9th December 2020 featuring data from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences.

Map of the world
Tt
Tt
  1. 1900 At the start of the 20th century, human-made mass weighed the equivalent of just 3% of the Earth's total biomass.
  2. 1901
  3. 1902
  4. 1903
  5. 1904
  6. 1905
  7. 1906
  8. 1907
  9. 1908
  10. 1909
  11. 1910
  12. 1911
  13. 1912
  14. 1913
  15. 1914
  16. 1915
  17. 1916
  18. 1917
  19. 1918
  20. 1919
  21. 1920
  22. 1921
  23. 1922
  24. 1923
  25. 1924
  26. 1925
  27. 1926
  28. 1927
  29. 1928
  30. 1929
  31. 1930
  32. 1931
  33. 1932
  34. 1933
  35. 1934
  36. 1935
  37. 1936
  38. 1937
  39. 1938
  40. 1939
  41. 1940
  42. 1941
  43. 1942
  44. 1943
  45. 1944
  46. 1945 The end of World War 2 marks the start of the period known as the Great Acceleration - the creation of human-made mass sped up considerably.
  47. 1946
  48. 1947
  49. 1948
  50. 1949
  51. 1950
  52. 1951
  53. 1952
  54. 1953
  55. 1954
  56. 1955
  57. 1956
  58. 1957
  59. 1958
  60. 1959 By 1959 human-made mass weighed the same as 10% of the Earth's biomass. One fifth of this mass was accounted for by concrete alone.
  61. 1960
  62. 1961
  63. 1962
  64. 1963
  65. 1964
  66. 1965
  67. 1966
  68. 1967
  69. 1968
  70. 1969
  71. 1970
  72. 1971
  73. 1972
  74. 1973 The 1973 oil crisis reversed the growth of human-made mass production for the next decade, though it never fell below 3% a year.
  75. 1974
  76. 1975
  77. 1976
  78. 1977
  79. 1978
  80. 1979 By 1979 human-made mass had reached the weight of 25% of the total biomass.
  81. 1980
  82. 1981
  83. 1982
  84. 1983
  85. 1984
  86. 1985
  87. 1986
  88. 1987
  89. 1988
  90. 1989
  91. 1990
  92. 1991
  93. 1992
  94. 1993
  95. 1994
  96. 1995
  97. 1996
  98. 1997
  99. 1998
  100. 1999
  101. 2000 In the 20th century the amount of human-made mass grew by more than 16 times and had reached 50% of the weight of biomass.
  102. 2001
  103. 2002
  104. 2003
  105. 2004
  106. 2005
  107. 2006
  108. 2007
  109. 2008
  110. 2009
  111. 2010
  112. 2011
  113. 2012
  114. 2013 So far, we've not been including waste as part of human-made mass - including that, at this point it now outweighed the biomass.
  115. 2014
  116. 2015
  117. 2016
  118. 2017
  119. 2018
  120. 2019
  121. 2020 The tipping point: as of 2020, the human-made mass on the planet (excluding waste products) weighed as much as the biomass.
  122. 2021
  123. 2022
  124. 2023
  125. 2024
  126. 2025
  127. 2026
  128. 2027
  129. 2028
  130. 2029
  131. 2030
  132. 2031
  133. 2032
  134. 2033
  135. 2034
  136. 2035
  137. 2036
  138. 2037 It's currently thought that, in less than 20 years time, human-made mass (mostly concrete) will weigh double the Earth's biomass.
  1. 1900
  2. 1905
  3. 1910
  4. 1915
  5. 1920
  6. 1925
  7. 1930
  8. 1935
  9. 1940
  10. 1945
  11. 1950
  12. 1955
  13. 1960
  14. 1965
  15. 1970
  16. 1975
  17. 1980
  18. 1985
  19. 1990
  20. 1995
  21. 2000
  22. 2005
  23. 2010
  24. 2015
  25. 2020
  26. 2025
  27. 2030
  28. 2035
  29. 2040