Our planet is misnamed, should be Water not Earth

Really. Barely 30% of our planet is dry land, and over 70% is water. We've misnamed it.

Because we're terrestrial beasts, and rather self-centered, we focus on the world we're familiar with, the dry land. But the tiny Antarctic krill that whales eat, for example, are roughly twice the total biomass of humans. Phytoplankton may represent as much as 90% of the biomass in the ocean, and produce over 50% of the oxygen we need to live.



In fact, bacteria account for about 50% of Earth's biomass, while humans are only about 0.33% (less than 1 percent!), showing once again it's not all about us.

TH

Comments

Unknown said…
Actually, 30% of the surface of the Earth is earth. The rest of the earth is 30% earth and 70% mantle. So Earth should be called "Mantle".
7:16 AM, January 29, 2007
Anonymous said…
@Cian
Actually, the core is what Earth is all about. Therefore, Earth should be called "Core".
4:29 PM, January 21, 2013
Tom said…
A little off topic, but did you know our atmosphere is thinner than the skin of an apple? Relatively, of course.
4:49 PM, January 21, 2013
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