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Along with reducing their contribution to atmospheric methane,
there are many good reasons to reduce the number
of domestic ruminant animals that
live on our planet at any one time.
(See index for soil erosion for details.)
But the focus on the methane contributed by such animals
distracts us from the methane releases
that human activities are causing.
While “livestock account for 15-20 percent of
global methane emissions”,
it is at least equaled by our own activities.3
Currently, our use of fossil fuels contributes 20% of the methane
that is being released into the atmosphere.4
At least half of this 20% results from
the release of methane gas related to mining coal.5
As stated in the first paragraph of this introduction,
this book is about solutions.
Solutions that are not only consistent
with principles of ecological sustainability
but those that can be successfully applied on a scale
that can sustainably support a global population
of 7 billion or more individuals
who increasingly live in urban areas.
It is also about developing a planning strategy
that will help us in this effort.
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It is my belief that the recommendations presented in this book
are workable and cost effective, even within the narrow confines
of how we currently measure material wealth.
But, I also see these recommmendations
as only a starting place.
We are just beginning to understand
how the life support system on our planet works.
Indeed, we have not even named all the organisms
that share this planet with us.
Our relationship to them, as interdependent elements
in the web of life, is even more of a mystery.
As our knowledge grows, new insights and ideas about how
we can live and make livings sustainably on our planet
are sure to evolve.
To people of the future,
the ideas I have presented here will, undoubtedly,
seem as crude and quaint as
the thechnologies of the distant past
seem to us today.
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