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Tipping point? Humanity’s stuff now weighs more than all living things


Our deficiencies have always driven us, even among our distant ancestors, back in the last Ice Age. Having neither the speed and strength to hunt large prey, nor sharp teeth and claws to tear flesh, we improvised spears, flint knives, scrapers. Lacking a thick pelt, we took the fur of other animals. As the ice receded, we devised more means of survival and comfort – stone dwellings, plows, wheeled vehicles. All these inventions allowed small oases of civilization to be wrested from a natural wilderness that seemed endless. The idea of a natural world that dwarfed humanity and its creations…

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