Earth is our only home…
and the only place we can currently live… anywhere.

Earth is situated perfectly within the Goldilocks Zone of the Sun… this gives Earth the right temperatures to allow liquid water to exist. Like the fairy tale goes, it’s not too close to the Sun and it’s not too far… it’s just right. Because of this, it is the only planet we know of that can sustain and nurture life as we know it. It is our total and sole resource for life which depends on many indelibly interlinked life systems.

Even though thousands of other planets have been found within and beyond our own galaxy that could sustain life as we know it, not one has been confirmed to have that capability. The reason is that there are many, many other conditions which have to exist in order for the life we know to be possible. It’s a very delicate and intricate balance of conditions that must be achieved and sustained constantly, against which the odds are extraordinarily astronomical (no pun intended!).

Only Earth is capable of providing an abundance of life and life-giving provisions in this solar system… or anywhere else we can ascertain with our limited knowledge.

Such is the very nature of Earth. It is perfectly unique… so far as we know.

Earth and our solar system are located in the outer fringe of the Milky Way, an average size spiral galaxy containing upwards of 400 billion stars. Pictured above is a galaxy often referred to as the Milky Way’s twin, which is about 30 million lightyears away that astronomers call NGC 6744. (Photo image credit: European Southern Observatory – ESO)

Ecology Prime™ Pulse of the Planet shows Earth’s current vital signs that directly indicate the state of current conditions impacting all life today.

Simply stated, Earth’s lifespan is billions of years into the future… but the endurance of all the planet’s life, including humans, unequivocally and directly depends on Earth sustaining its fragile life systems. And that is a different story.

Following are the essential indicators of life on Earth and its capacities for sustaining life today. This is the real time checkup on the heartbeat of Earth’s life systems. This is Pulse of the Planet on Ecology Prime !

Earth’s Age: ~4,540,000,000 years.

Assuming there are no natural or human-induced life-annihilating catastrophes beforehand, Earth can sustain life for about another 1.75 to 3.25 billion years as natural forces eventually corrupt the environment of the planet’s habitable zone. As the Sun ages, it gets hotter and brighter… and that energy directly hits Earth. Today, the Sun is about 20% hotter and brighter than it was when Earth first formed; its luminosity and heat generation are increasing ~6 – 8% every billion years. This increase will eventually make Earth uninhabitable when it is 6.3 – 7.8 billion years old.

Earth’s Life Expectancy: ~9.5 – 10 billion years.

.. the Sun will become a Red Giant which will engulf the inner planets – Mercury, Venus and Earth. While not obliterating the planet, it will incinerate all Earth’s life operations including vaporizing its remaining atmosphere and all its water rendering the planet incapable of holding any life.

current population

Source: UNDESA Population Data (estimates).

Population Growth Outlook
~ 2100 | 10.9 Billion People
World population is projected to top off at 10.9 billion by the year 2100 when the number of births per women worldwide fall to 1.9, down from 2.5 births per women today.

  • Population Density (Land Surface): 54 people per km2 | 140 people per mi2 
  • Most Populous Country:  India – 1,442,857,230 (August 2024) 
  • Least Populous Country*: Tuvalu – 12,108 (remote west-central Pacific Island)
    *Vatican City State is its own country, completely surrounded by Rome, Italy; however, it is totally absorbed by the ecology and environment of Italy. Its population of 526 people would make it the least populated country.
  • Country with Greatest Population Density: Monaco (39,783 people) – 17,217.6/km2 | 44,593.4/mi2.
    Country with Least Population Density:  Aruba (106,177 people): 0.57/km2 | 1.47/mi2.
    **Greenland (56,973 people) is a territory of Denmark and is the world’s largest non-continental island. If Greenland were a sovereign country, it would rank as having the least population density with 0.03 people per km2 | 0.07/mi2. Its total land area is 2,166,086 km2 | 72,266.74 mi2 (2024).

Today’s Average Human Lifespan:
Men: 73 Years | Women: 78 Years

Average Human Lifespan in 2100
Men: 81 Years | Women: 86Years

The Sun and its energy is depicted interacting with Earth and its magnetic field during a solar storm. (Image Source: NASA)
  • Distance from the Sun (average): 149,597,871 km | 92,955,807 miles
  • Farthest Distance (Aphelion): 152 million km | 94.4 million miles.
  • Closest Distance (Perihelion): 147 million km | 91.3 million miles.
  • The Sun’s gravitational pull on Earth and the speed at which Earth is moving keeps the planet in its orbit around the Sun.
The Moon as seen over Earth from the International Space Station. (Image Source: NASA)
  • Distance from Earth (average): 384,400 km | 238,855 miles
  • Farthest Distance (Apogee): 405,500 km | 251,000 miles (average)
  • Closest Distance (Perigee): 363,300 km | 226,000 miles (average)
  • Effect on Earth’s Climate: Tidal activity which also affects circulation of heat through the oceans and temperatures at the poles.
  • Precipitation is slightly decreased when the Moon is high in the sky due to a slight warming effect caused by the atmospheric air pressure it creates. Warmer air holds more moisture. (NASA)

Outlook: Although the Moon is moving away from Earth at the rate of 3.8 cm | 1.5 inches per year, its fate will be the same as Earth’s when both are consumed together by the Sun in about five billion years.

Earth’s Total Surface Area: 510.072 million km2 | 196.94 million mi2

29.1% is Land Surface Area: 148.94 million km2 | 57.5 million mi2.

70.9% is Water Surface Area: 361.9 million km2 | 139.7 million mi2.

Cryosphere: 12% of Earth’s total surface is permanently covered by ice and snow, about 75% of which is contained in the Arctic and the Antarctic polar regions.

All of Earth’s land surface continents are connected by the oceans. (NASA image)
Oceania is composed of over 10,000 islands spanning the South Pacific and North Pacific Oceans, but they are not technically a contiguous continent land mass. Australia, which is part of the Oceania region, is both a country and a continent. (Image: Google Maps enhanced by Ecology Prime™ Data Resources)

Earth’s land surface area is generally defined by continents, but not all land is part of a continent. About 1.6 million square kilometers (one million square miles) – or about 0.67% of Earth’s total land surface – consists mostly of islands that are not part of a continent.

Geographically, Earth’s surface area is divided into six continents. They are – largest to smallest by surface area:

  • Eurasia:  54.01 million km2  |  20.86 million mi2  
    (Europe and Asia are often considered separate continents for cultural and historical reasons; however, they are both part of the same contiguous continental land mass.)
  • Africa:  30.38 million km2  |  11.73 million mi2
  • North America:  24.50 million km2  |  9.49 million mi2
  • South America:   17.84 million km2  |  6.89 million mi2
  • Antarctica: 13.73 million km2  |  5.30 million mi2
  • Australia:  7.69 million km2  |  2.97 million mi2
    (Note: The figures above represent both land and water surface areas contained within the continental borders.)

Australia is considered part of the greater continent of Oceania in some parts of the world, but Oceania is not technically a continent. Australia is both a continent and a country.

Oceania is a region composed of over 10,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean spanning the southern and northern hemispheres. Australia and New Zealand are included in the Oceania region but only Australia is geographically a continent. Specifically, a continent is defined as a large contiguous land mass separated from other large continuous land masses by one or more oceans.

Important Note in the News:
A recent study claims that, technically, North America and Eurasia are actually the same continent because the tectonic plates on which they rest have not fully separated. The North American and Eurasian plates are separated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which some geologists say still connect the two continents. However, this position has not been widely accepted throughout the scientific community.

Earth’s Total Water Volume:

1.386 billion cubic km3 | 332.540 million mi3 (About 366 quintillion gallons).

  • Oceans: 96.5% of all water.
  • Ice Caps/Glaciers/Permanent Snow (1.76% of all water): 24.064 million km3 | 2.526 million mi3.  
  • 97.44% – salt water: 1.351 billion cubic km3 | 324.027 million mi3.
  • 2.56% – fresh water: 35.484 million km3 | 8.513 million mi3 (includes ice caps and glaciers)
  • Only ~0.3% of freshwater is in liquid form on the surface.
  • Fresh Liquid Water Total: 10,665,110 km3 | 2,558,700 mi3
  • * 98.7% of liquid freshwater is groundwater (includes soil moisture).
  • * ~1% of liquid freshwater is from the atmosphere, biological and other sources.
  • 69.6% of all freshwater is in ice form (held within the ice caps, glaciers, mountains, permafrost/ground ice).
  • Potable (Drinkable) Water (0.3% of total water): 4.158 million km3 | .998 million mi3 (About 1.1 quintillion gallons).
  • 98% of Earth’s available fresh (potable) water is groundwater.
  • Country with greatest volume of internal freshwater resources: Brazil – 8,233 km3 | 1,975 mi3.
  • Country with least volume of internal freshwater resources: Kuwait – 0.02 km3 | 0.005 mi3.
  • Highest per capita internal freshwater resources: Greenland (#1) – 10.7 million cubic meters | Iceland (#2) – 0.519 million km3.
  • Lowest per capita internal freshwater resources: Kuwait (#180) – 0.0 cubic meters | Bahrain (#179) – 2.55 cubic meters.

Average Annual Surface Temperature:
15.08°C | 59.14°F
(2023)

– 2023 has been confirmed as the warmest year on record since 1850 when accurate readings were first available. The 2023 average surface temperature is 0.15°C (0.27°F) more than the previous record set in 2016.

– Since 1981, warming has occurred at over twice this rate: 0.18°C | 0.32°F per decade.

– Average increase of 0.08°C | 0.14°F per decade since 1880.

  • An increase of 1.01°C | 1.82°F since 1880.
  • Poles are 0.55°C | 0.99°F warmer during full moons.

Earth’s Inner Core Temperature:
5,403°C | 9,006°F

~ About the same temperature as the Sun’s surface~

Coldest Temperature on Record (Current Era):
-89.2°C |-128.6°F – July 21, 1983, at Vostok Station, Antarctica. (Vostok Station is a Russian research post located about 1,301 kilometers (808.4 miles) from the Geographic South Pole in Antarctica.)

Hottest Temperature on Record (Current Era):
58.0°C | 136.4°F – September 13, 1922, in El Aziziya, Libya.

Validation: Historical records have been certified and decertified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). based on their findings on the reliability of original reports. There is some controversy leading WMO to decertify, in 2012, the El Aziziya heat record of 58.0°C (136.4°F) in 1922 and certify an official record of 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) on July 10, 1913, in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, CA, USA. Even this record has been debunked by meteorologists who point to a “more reliable” record of 54.4°C (129.9°F) set on August 16, 2022, in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California, as reliably the hottest temperature of record. This published in a final report from NOAA; however, disagreement remains on each of these reports. In any case, these temperature recordings are intensely, if not lethally, hot!

Atmospheric Air

Air Volume: 4.2 billion km3 | 1.1 billion mi3.

Air pollution is now considered to be the world’s largest environmental health threat, accounting for seven million deaths around the world every year. (World Health Organization – WHO)

(The effective air volume is contained within the troposphere, up to about 8 – 14.5 kilometers | 4.97 – 9.01 miles above Earth’s surface.)

Dry Air Composition: Nitrogen – 78.08% | Oxygen – 20.95 % | Argon – 0.93% | Carbon Dioxide – 0.04%. Trace gases include neon, helium, methane, krypton, ozone and hydrogen.
(Percentages are rounded to nearest decimal point. Does not account for pollutants and other unnatural air additives.)

State of Earth’s Air Composition: Very Stable.
This is largely due to the presence of a naturally occurring “detergent” compound called hydroxyl radical that generates the process of cleansing the air of pollutants and other elements that can affect the air’s composition. This process has been at work since Earth began… its nature’s own air purification system.

Air Quality Index – AQI: 60.94 – Moderate

(Average of 119 Regionally Diverse Major Cities, Cleanest and Most Polluted, Worldwide – August 2024)
Source: IQAir, Live Rankings

International Air Quality Index Chart, per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB

Primary Outdoor Air Pollutants:  Carbon monoxide | lead | nitrogen dioxide | ozone | particulate matter (all sizes) | sulfur dioxide.

  • Largest Primary Air Pollutant: Carbon Monoxide – 58% of primary pollutants.
  • Most Dangerous Air Pollutant: Particulate matter (dirt, smog, smoke, dust, water vapor) – 3% of primary pollutants.
  • Largest manmade source of primary pollution: Industrialization – Combustion of fossil fuels.
  • Largest natural sources of primary air pollution: Volcanoes | biological decay | fires – forest fires | dust storms | plant matter – pollen.

Most polluted regions (2022 average air quality index)

  • Eastern Mediterranean Region (22 countries): 110 – Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (Population – 670 million, 7.5% of the global population)
  • Southeast Asia Region (11 countries): 101 – Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (Population – 1.84 billion people, 20.6% of the global population)

Most polluted countries (2021 average air quality index)

  • Bangladesh: 178 – Unhealthy
  • Chad: 147 – Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

Least polluted regions (2023 average AQI)

  • North Europe Region (10 countries): 34 – Good
  • US-Canada North America: 39 – Good

Least polluted countries (2023 average AQI)

  • Puerto Rico (US territory): 20 – Good!
  • Australia: 23 – Good!
  • Finland: 23 – Good!

Current State: 99% of the global population is exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution, directly accounting for over seven million deaths each year (WHO) primary in highly urbanized regions. It is increasing at a rate of 1.6% per year, primarily due to industrial and transportation fossil fuel combustion. Trends towards use of renewable energy and increased use of mass transportation is helping reduce harmful manmade pollutants introduced into ambient outdoor air.

Nine in 10 people today live in areas where outdoor air pollution levels are unhealthy, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Annual Total Energy Usage

(2023 Data)

624.9 million terajoules | 592.3 quadrillion BTU | 14,925.5 MTOE – megatonnes of oil equivalent | 173.6 trillion kWh – kilowatt hours) (Based on 5% increased energy consumption over 2021. Consumption increased 5.8 percent in 2021 over 2020.)

Total Energy Sources (in order of most consumed)

  • Oil: 31.0%
  • Coal: 26.9
  • Natural Gas: 24.4%
  • Renewables (wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, biomass): 13.4%
  • Nuclear: 4.3%

Largest Energy Consumption:

All four countries collectively consume over half – 51.4% – of the world’s energy production.

Renewable Energy Sources:

~ 3.4% of Total Energy Sources (in order of most consumed.

  • Wind: 27%
  • Hydropower: 19%
  • Solar: 12%
  • Geothermal: 2%
  • Biomass: 40%
  • Biofuels: 19%
  • Wood: 17%
  • Biomass Waste: 4%

Least Energy Consumption: Kiribati and Falkland Islands – each with 0.00001% global energy consumption.

Largest Annual Per Capita Consumption: Gibraltar – 5.7 million Btu; Qatar – 0.793 million Btu; Iceland – 0.662 million Btu.

Smallest Annual Per Capita Consumption: Chad – 325 Btu; Kiribati – 404 Btu.

Note: Total world energy consumption is defined as the total energy used to power civilization, principally for residential and commercial electricity, industry such as construction, agriculture, mining), communications and transportation.

Renewable energy will be on the rise, more than doubling by 2050 and will meet 27% of global energy consumption needs. Fossil fuel consumption will increase at a lower rate with its share of total energy decreasing by 3.5% over 2022 projections to 68.8% of the total energy provided. Coal consumption, today’s largest source of all electricity produced globally (37%), will produce 22% of the world’s electricity by 2040; it will still be the largest provider of the world’s electricity needs.

Outlook: Though total fossil fuel supply percentages are decreasing and renewable energy is increasing, global energy demand continues to and will continue to increase. Total global energy consumption is expected to increase 50% by 2050 over 2020 levels, largely due to increased populations – particularly in Asia.

Total Number of Living Species (estimated):

8.743 Million

(Includes all living things – animals, plants, fungi and other lifeforms, except for bacteria and certain microbes. Scientists consider this estimate as one of the most accurate based on data about known species to determine total numbers that exist but not yet discovered. (Announced in 2011 in the journal PLOS Biology.) Scientists agree, however, that inestimable species are still to be discovered, especially in the oceans, and many will become extinct before they can be identified. Numbers are rounded.)

Total Number of Identified Living Species: 2,129,393

(This number is based on multiple sources which vary based on determination of species groupings and methods of identification. These are only identified species; scientists agree that millions more species have yet to be identified.)

  • Species on Land: ~6.5 million | 14% of land species have been identified.
  • Species in the Oceans: ~2.2 million | 95% of ocean species have been identified. 
  • Animals: ~7.77 million 
  • Plants: ~298,000
  • Fungi: ~611,000
  • Other (single-celled organisms and microbes): ~63,900

Vertebrates

(have backbones)
  • Mammals – 6,578
  • Birds – 11,162
  • Reptiles 11,690
  • Amphibians – 8,395
  • Fishes – 36,058

Invertebrates

(no backbones)
  • Insects – 1,053,578
  • Mollusks – 83,706
  • Crustaceans – 80,122
  • Corals – 5,610
  • Arachnids – 110,615
  • Worms – 208
  • Horseshoe Crabs – 4
  • Others – 157,543

Fauna (Animals): 1,565,269
Total Threatened – Fauna: 16,479 –

Flora

  • Lichens – 17,000
  • Mushrooms – 120,000
  • Brown algae – 4,381
  • Flowering plants (angiosperms) – 369,000
  • Conifers (gymnosperms) – 1,113
  • Ferns and horsetails – 11,800
  • Mosses – 21,295
  • Red and green algae – 19,535
  • Others: 141,381

(Important Note on Trees: Most trees are included in flowering plants and conifers.  There are over 60,000 species of trees in the natural world, according to Botanic Gardens Conservation International – BGCI).

Flora (Plants): 422,743
Total Threatened – Flora:  23,335

Total Species Threatened: 40,084 – 8.6% of all species are classified as critically endangered. 

Living Species banner

Pulse Facts: Did You Know…?

  • 95% of the planet’s human population inhabits only 10% of Earth’s land surface.
  • Disappearing Arctic Ice… The Arctic region is projected to be ice free by the summer of 2050, the time of year when Arctic ice reaches it smallest extent because of the warmer summer waters and air temperatures.
  • Despite Antarctica’s gains in ice cover, the planet as a whole has been losing sea ice at an average annual rate of 34,965 km2 (13,500 mi2) since 1979. This is because the Antarctic’s ice gains have been far less than the Arctic’s escalating ice losses.
  • Global annual energy consumption today is roughly equal to the energy released from the World War II atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima every four seconds, which is equivalent to the energy from 13,000 tons of TNT.
  • Europe and Asia form one continent, covering over 55 million square kilometers (about 21.24 million square miles). It is Earth’s largest continental land mass, accounting for about 36.2% of the planet’s land surface.
  • Asia is the most populated region on Earth where about 59% of Earth’s total population – 4.8 billion people – live. Combined with Europe’s 741.8 million people, Eurasia contains over 68.4% of the world’s human population, or about 5.54 billion people. (2024 data by UNDESA – Population Division)

There are about 3.04 trillion trees on the planet according to scientific research reported in the journal Nature. That ‘s approximately 375.3 trees per person living today. This includes ~73,300 species of trees.

  • Africa’s population is projected to reach about 2.5 billion people by the year 2050, accounting for over 25.1% of the global population then.
  • Australia-Oceania is the least populated region on Earth with 45.6 million people, or .55% of the global human population. Oceania spans both the eastern and western hemispheres with 23 countries and territories, including Australia, New Zealand multiple smaller islands and island groups. (Based on July 2023 data)
  • Sometimes called a young continent, Oceania is technically not a continent in geological terms, but it is rather a region consisting of over 10,000 islands not connected by a single land mass. Australia, one of the six true continents, is part of Oceania. The 2022 estimated population of Oceania is 43.52 million people (including Australia).
  • Air Matters – airquality.com
  • AQICN.org – World Air Quality Index
  • Astronomy
  • Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
  • Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
  • BP – Statistical Review of World Energy
  • Centers for Disease Control (CDC) – Air
  • Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
  • Cool Antarctica
  • Earth How
  • European Commission
  • European Space Agency (ESA)
  • ESA – Space Debris by the Numbers
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – Forests
  • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – AQUASAT
  • Index Mundi – Freshwater Resources
  • Index Mundi – World Area
  • International Energy Agency (IEA)
  • International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)
  • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
  • IQAir
  • Live Science
  • National Academy of Science – The Science Behind Space
  • NASA – Earth Observatory Water Cycle Overview
  • NASA – Heliophysics Science Division
  • NASA – Search for Another Earth
  • Natural History Museum (United Kingdom)
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
  • NOAA – Global Temperature
  • National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC)
  • Our World in Data
  • Space.com
  • The World Bank – DataBank
  • The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
  • The World Factbook – CIA
  • U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
  • United Nations – Population
  • U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – Renewable Energy Sources
  • United Nations DESA, Population Division
  • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
  • United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – Population Data Portal
  • University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
  • University of Minnesota – Environmental Biology
  • University of Maine – Planetarium
  • US Census Bureau
  • US Geological Survey-Water Science
  • World Atlas
  • World Coal Association – Coal u0026amp; Electricity
  • World Health Organization (WHO) – Air Pollution