torqueless
Senior Retro Guru
Re:
I think I remember reading, decades ago, in one of those Hare Krishna books, that the average American consumes ten times as much protein as a human body can metabolise.
I don't think anyone needs me to run through the ramifications and dietary implications of this estimate of current world biomass distribution, or to make a judgement as to how 'sustainable' such a distribution might be, or indeed how 'sustainable' the ten thousand year dynamic that led to it ever was:
Humans = 40 megatons…
Wild land vertebrates = 5 megatons…
Ocean vertebrates = 50 megatons…
Domestic vertebrates = 100 megatons…
Global Source:Harvesting the Biosphere: The Human Impact by Vaclav Smil
Left out of those figures there's a whole lot of invertebrates too, of course, along with all the vegetable kingdom..
I think I remember reading, decades ago, in one of those Hare Krishna books, that the average American consumes ten times as much protein as a human body can metabolise.
I don't think anyone needs me to run through the ramifications and dietary implications of this estimate of current world biomass distribution, or to make a judgement as to how 'sustainable' such a distribution might be, or indeed how 'sustainable' the ten thousand year dynamic that led to it ever was:
Humans = 40 megatons…
Wild land vertebrates = 5 megatons…
Ocean vertebrates = 50 megatons…
Domestic vertebrates = 100 megatons…
Global Source:Harvesting the Biosphere: The Human Impact by Vaclav Smil
Left out of those figures there's a whole lot of invertebrates too, of course, along with all the vegetable kingdom..