← on nowLGR-104 · v0.1.0 · model · estimate ivory and plastic: the numbers
ivory and plastic · billiard balls
billiard balls needed ivory. a $10,000 prize for a substitute produced celluloid in 1869, the first plastic. plastic was invented to save elephants. it now weighs about twice as much as every animal on earth combined.
method Meikle 1995 (celluloid); Elhacham et al. 2020 (anthropogenic mass vs biomass); Geyer et al. 2017; CITES MIKE for poaching.
live. this is the channel itself. embed it anywhere:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?channel=ivory%20and%20plastic" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · ivory and plastic"></iframe>
or the whole broadcast, every channel, the same for everyone:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?embed=1" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · on now, everywhere"></iframe>
how this number is built
- method
- Meikle 1995 (celluloid); Elhacham et al. 2020 (anthropogenic mass vs biomass); Geyer et al. 2017; CITES MIKE for poaching.
- range
- plastic ~8 Gt cumulative vs animal biomass ~4 Gt wet
- confidence
- estimate
- weakness
- the 'twice' compares cumulative plastic ever made with living animal mass; both are estimates.
- dispute
- dispute LGR-104 · corrections are credited
- data
- channels.json (sign-in) · full entry · CC BY 4.0