Ok this is a shocker. The graphic below says it all really.
10,000 years ago Earth looked very different. The climate was changing and humans were becoming more settled as they started domesticating animals and tinkering with agriculture. I’d recommend this video if you’d like to know more about what humans were up to then and the wild animals which existed at the time.
10,000 years ago there were probably around five million humans and we represented just 1% of the weight of all vertebrate land animals at the time. The last time I looked here there were 7 billion 800 million (or so) of us, and many of us weigh rather more than we should.
Interestingly, the human population is growing more slowly than it once was. We are currently increasing by 1% every year which is half the rate of growth compared to the 1960s.
I don’t know about you, but personally I would like to see a world with fewer domesticated animals and more wild animals? I don’t think that is going to be possible though anytime soon whilst the biosphere is disproportionately weighed down by humans with a love of cheap meat and a fear of wild critters.
The sea is important to many of us in so many ways. Perhaps you are one of the 40% lucky enough to live within 100 kilometers of it? Perhaps you enjoy a fish supper once in a while? Did you know 17% of the protein consumed globally comes out of the sea? But this is a blog about one percents, well….
The FAO estimates that fishing, aquaculture and aquafeed contributed 1% to the global economy in 2019. As a trend we are taking more out of the sea year on year and inevitably we need to be careful not to compromise such a valuable resource.
But 80% of all life on Earth lives in the sea and the marine ecosystem is suffering under the weight of over-fishing, global heating and plastic pollution, amongst other things. This is particularly apparent in one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet – coral reefs. These amazing places cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface but it is estimated that a quarter of all ocean species depend on them for food and shelter.
Acknowledging the huge importance of the sea and all that calls it home, the UN Sustainable Development Goals set a target to protect 10% of the world’s oceans by 2020. Unfortunately this hasn’t been achieved as only 7.6% is currently protected within Marine Protection Areas: and only 1% of the high seas, which usually fall outside of national jurisdictions, are protected from fishing. However the push for increased protection continues, spearheaded by the UK and the Global Ocean Alliance, with a new ambitious target of 30% of the ocean protected by 2030.
Its great to see the UK being so proactive in this area. As a series of islands we have a strong connection to the sea both to our economy and through our history; and one of the newest Marine Protection Areas reflects this. The waters around the UK Overseas Territory of Tristan Da Cunha were protected at the end of 2020. It is described as a largely untouched wildlife haven, home to tens of millions of seabirds including albatross and penguins, whales, sharks and seals and the largest ‘no-take’ zone in the Atlantic. Covering over 260,000 square miles this represents another 1% of the global oceans protected!
You have seen the film right? Woman in a shower. Crazy music. A ruined shower curtain. Blood circling around a plug-hole. I’m sure there is much more scary stuff out there these days if you want to study psychopaths; and of course some of it isn’t fictional.
I’m not sure though that the ‘psycho’ in popular culture truly aligns with the actual psychopaths with whom we all share our lives. If psychopaths were all murderers then there would be many more plug-hole moments and wasted shower curtains. You’ve guessed it; one percent of us are psychopaths! That’s 78 million people – walking the planet right now.
According to the United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends 490,000 people were murdered globally in 2004. There were 6.5 billion of us then so, assuming that the psychopathic rate was the same, that equates to just one murder for every 132 psychopaths! I wouldn’t want to see that played out in a shower cubicle.
So evidently not all psychopaths are murderers and perhaps not all murderers are psychopaths. Rutger Bregman mentions in his book Humankind that 1% of human deaths during the twentieth century were classified as ‘violent deaths’. These deaths include murder victims but also people killed in war and conflict with which the twentieth century was of course overly defined. It is useful to note that although 1% of human deaths were violent last century, our nearest animal relative the chimpanzee (with whom we share 99% of our genes) managed a 4.5% ‘violent death’ rate.
Well, if psychopaths aren’t out there sneaking up on people trying to wash away their worries, what are they up to? Many psychopaths are able to lead relatively normal lives of course, hiding amongst us, content to reek havoc in marriages, on motorways, in offices and posting on twitter. Although 1% of the general population has psychopathic tendencies their numbers increase significantly within certain sectors. Importantly somewhere between 3-20% of chief executive officers and leaders are psychopaths. They are the people, historically, who send their more empathetic peers off to war and conflicts and to do their dirty work.
So when you are standing in your shower tomorrow morning don’t worry. It’s possible that some of you will be sharing your homes with a psychopath – for that you have my sincere sympathy; but statistically you are probably safe. If you, or one of your housemates is a chimpanzee or a chief executive however….best to lock the bathroom door.
Here is a 1% which we will hopefully be moving away from as the 2020’s progress. Did you know that just 1% of our clothing gets made into new clothing? That is rather shocking isn’t it?
It is estimated that on average every person on the planet buys 13 garments every year. There is considerable variation of course and in the UK for example 33 garments are purchased per person each year. Over the space of a lifetime therefore the average UK consumer might buy 2640 garments. Just 26 of these will be used to make other clothes once they are thrown out.
No one wants to think that other peoples’ pants and socks are recycled into their new clothes. I am reminded of the rather fabulous portmanteau ‘grundies’ which marries ‘grotty’ with ‘undies’. Many items will not be suitable for recycling into other clothing of course but overall only 12% of the material used in discarded clothing is recycled into other things. That means that the remaining 88% finds itself in a waste-stream which will most likely end in landfill. This leaves the fashion industry in the unenviable position of being responsible for 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions; making it the third most polluting industry globally (after fossil fuels and agriculture).
In 2017 Vogue reported that ‘sustainable fashion just got sexy’ but despite the good intentions, recent CO research shows that the sale of fashion that is actively promoted as sustainable and ethical is less than 1% of the retail offering in the UK. Another 1% which we really need to increase.
There are some great companies out there leading the way. Many high street retailers are driving things forward by actively engaging with their supply chains. You can buy ethically sourced and organic clothing if you look for it. Recycled materials are increasingly being used too such as by using waste plastic to create fabrics. But this has its own issues associated with potential micro-plastic pollution of the environment.
To move away from the monster which is fast fashion we need to look at the merits of slow fashion. We could buy fewer, better quality garments which we expect to last longer. Could you buy fewer than 33 clothing items this year? Perhaps you could consider supporting the embryo circular fashion industry where clothing is made back into clothing at the end of its life? A good example of this is a recycled t-shirt offered by Isle of Wight based brand Rapanui.
I’ll make an exception though for the pile of discarded ‘grundies’; perhaps they could be used as an innovative fuel source instead?
For the last ten years the ‘one percent’ has been used as short-hand to refer to the wealthiest people on the planet.
The phrase has been used to illustrate the huge disparities in wealth globally, both between and within countries. According to a 2019 report by the Credit Suisse Research Institute 1% of the world’s population holds 44% of household wealth (Global Wealth Report).
It appears that the gap is widening. A report by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that from 2009 to 2015 in the United States, the incomes of the top 1% grew faster than the incomes of the bottom 99 percent in 43 states and the top 1% captured half or more of all income growth in nine states in the U.S. The assets of the most fortunate globally have been growing at twice the rate of everyone else. Remarkably a recent report has calculated that by the year 2030 ‘the 1%’ will own two-thirds of the world’s wealth.
Bloomberg have helpfully compiled a list of what the top 1% within some countries looks like. The list (using data from the World Inequality Database), suggests that you would need to have an annual pretax income of $488,000 to be considered part of the top 1% in the U.S in 2019 and $248,000 (approximately £190,000) in the UK. By comparison the ‘one-percenters’ within China would need an annual income equivalent to $107,000 (approximately 744,000 Chinese Yuan) and in India $77,000 (approximately 5,800,000 Indian Rupees).
Looking at total wealth the Global Wealth Report has calculated that to be in ‘the 1%’ in 2019 an individual must have upwards of $744,400 (approximately £570,000) in combined income, investments, and personal assets to rank in the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest individuals. Are you in ‘the 1%’? This will be the case for 75,771,304 earthlings currently.
Many advanced economies of course have systems of progressive taxation forcing ‘the 1%’ to pay a hefty amount to their governments. In the UK for example the top 1% of earners contribute more than a third of the income tax collected. Dependent on the politics of the day some of that money is then used for the betterment of the 99% and to support policies to reduce inequality.
Most wealth is earned or won rather than inherited from the previous generation. But if money doesn’t float your boat there are of course many other ways to find yourself born into ‘the 1%’. You may be a redhead for example; only one in a hundred are born with naturally red hair. A look which some consider to be priceless.
Assumptions shape the future. They help us to plan ahead; on the assumption that what worked last year will work next year.
Infrastucture projects inevitably require underpinning assumptions to ensure they are built to the correct size for an assumed future demand. For example the UK has a £28 billion road building programme which is based on the assumption that traffic will increase by 1% a year for the foreseeable future; and 99% of the distance travelled is assumed to be done propelled by petrol, diesel or electricity.
According to UK government statistics in 2017 just 1% of the distance travelled by people in England was done on a bicycle. This is a surprisingly low number when compared to other European countries. 2% of journeys are done on a bicycle in the UK compared to 27% of journeys in The Netherlands and 11% in Germany for example.
But that was before Covid-19.
The lockdown response to control the spread of the coronavirus in March, April and May 2020 caused an unprecedented reduction in motorised traffic. A perfect storm of circumstances came together to completely challenge what transport assumptions can be taken forward into the future. The requirement to stay at home and only do essential journeys for food and medicine; a fear of catching the virus on public transport and being encouraged to take one outdoor exercise daily led to a massive shift to walking and cycling.
Traffic levels fell to 1950’s levels becoming so low that you could hear birdsong in towns and cities. Pollution smogs cleared and busy roads emptied – making them safe at last for people who would not have considered cycling under ‘normal’ conditions; many of whom would never think of wearing lycra. The Spring of 2020 was thankfully warm and sunny and people able to go outside appreciated seeing and hearing, perhaps for the first time, nature awakening from winter.
It is thought that new habits take an average of 66 days to form – although this will of course vary enormously between people. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
The coronavirus lockdown has been arguably long enough to form new habits and to open people’s eyes to the assumptions that previously went unchallenged. Many people may have formed a new walking or cycling habit to take into their futures and shape their assumptions about what is normal.
Perhaps the ‘noisy Spring’ of 2020 will challenge the assumption that our need to get from A to B as quickly as possible is worth losing our connection to nature for.
The future demand for different modes of transport in the post-Covid world will be hard to call but any assumptions reflecting a slower and greener way of moving about our towns and cities will be much more likely.
The UK government had committed to spending 2% of its transport budget on so called ‘active travel’. But there were calls to increase this amount even before the coronavirus hit. Perhaps the assumptions underpinning the return on this investment will look more favourable now. https://www.ciht.org.uk/news/renewed-call-for-greater-spend-on-active-travel/
Cycling might be reclaimed by the non-lycra wearing majority yet.
2020 started optimistically; to be fair most years do. This one seemed a bit special with its cool muddled palindromic looks. But just a month in and it was clear that 2020 was probably going to be one of those years.
You know the type; one of those years which history remembers for just one thing. Even people with a rudimentary knowledge can trot off 1066, 1492, 1914, 1939, 1969 and 2001 and what happened in each case. It turns out that 2020 is to be one for that list.
Covid-19, the disease caused by a novel coronavirus which appeared in China at the end of 2019 became a lethal pandemic during 2020. Early estimates quickly established that it was fatal to 1% of the people it infected. At first that didn’t sound too bad; and it looked like it would be contained within Wuhan in China and so the rest of the world was slow to react. But Covid-19 was very transmissable. Our efficient transport systems quickly made it a global concern and it wreaked havoc on health systems and economies around the world.
The early estimates of Covid-19 being fatal to 1% of those infected proved to be approximately correct; although the jury is still out on the true figure and may take years to establish. The 1% being hardest hit are unfortunately the most vulnerable in society; those with certain underlying health conditions. This is making Covid-19 particularly dangerous to those who are older. A graphic published in the Guardian 2/4/2020 showed that more than half of coronavirus deaths to have occurred in hospitals up to that date in England were among people aged 80 and over. Conversely less than 1% of the victims who died were under the age of 40.
In a sea of heartbreaking stories of people dying before their time during the pandemic I came across one particularly uplifting story. Rita Reynolds from Bramhall in Stockport was one of the 99% who recovered from Covid-19. This is particularly remarkable because she was aged 99 when she caught it. One of her relatives put her recovery down to the fact that she subsisted on marmalade sandwiches and biscuits.
Rita Reynolds was born in 1920 and belongs to the so called ‘Greatest Generation’. At birth she would have had a 1% chance of reaching the age of 100. The chance of reaching that age and coming through a Covid-19 diagnosis in her hundredth year is remarkable. Perhaps the pandemic food stock-pilers should be looking out for marmalade the next time they visit the supermarket.
Today the prospect of becoming a centenarian has much improved with a baby born in the UK in 2020 standing a 50% chance of reaching 100. In the year 2120 people of this yet unnamed generation will have lived through an unfathomable amount of change. The coronavirus pandemic in their birth year may or may not be remembered by history. It may be a defining moment or it may be over-shadowed by what is to come. At an individual level though many will grow-up without the presence of their grandparents and great-grandparents and that in itself will shape their generation. I hope they get to hear about the Greatest Generation and people like Rita Reynolds and Captain Tom. Who knows they may even try to recreate the joys of a good marmalade sandwich.
One Percent Blog 