There is a fascinating claim in the response:
" It’s estimated that worldwide the “biomass” (all organic matter) has declined about 7 percent since 1850. "
As the response was posted in 1994, I was curious as to A) how the ‘seven percent’ number was calculated, and B) if the decline of biomass was still current considering ongoing human population growth. Does our population growth create a tipping point in our planet’s biomass atrophy?
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, thebiggrabowski, we’re glad you’ve found us. For future ref: when you start a thread, it’s helpful to provide a link to the column in question. Saves search time for other readers, and (more or less) keeps us on the same page. No biggie, you’ll know for next time, and you did provide the topic in the header, so here’s the link:
Sadly, Cecil doesn’t keep old records (and back in those days, the records were a mess anyhow), so I’m not sure if there’s anyway of tracking down exactly what that source was. However, the question of updating the old info – that might be something that someone here wants to undertake?