The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 17, 2004, Page 9, Image 9
U.S. targets methane omissions
in fight against global warming
By JOHN HEILPRIN
TkE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Seeking to bolster
its credentials on global warming, the
United States signed an agreement
Tuesday with 13 other nations that calls
for investing up to $53 million in
companies that will profitably control
emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas.
Emissions of methane, mainly from
landfills, are ranked second behind
carbon dioxide emissions among
industrial gases scientists blame for
warming the earth’s climate.
“Today we’re planting a seed,” Mike
Leavitt, administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, told
representatives of the countries at a
ceremony co-sponsored by the
American Petroleum Institute and the
National Mining Association. “Together
we will reap an environmental and
economic harvest.”
Earlier Tuesday, Sen. John McCain
called on President Bush to do more to
fight global warming. McCain, R-Ariz.,
pointed to a study on rising Arctic
temperatures as further evidence that
changes in the earth’s climate aren’t
being addressed seriously enough.
“Some of us believe that the
accumulation of knowledge argues that
we act, rather than continue to
accumulate knowledge,” McCain said in
criticizing the Bush administration’s
climate strategy as research-heavy. Until
then, McCain had been playing down
his policy differences with Bush to
support the president’s re-election.
McCain said the study “clearly
demonstrates that climate change is real
and has far-reaching, implications for
society.”
Not so, said Sen. James Inhofe,
chairman of the environment committee,
who has described global warming as a
hoax. In a statement, Inhofe called the
study yet another scare tactic.
“Alarmists continue to pursue
doomsday scenarios about global
warming, but without releasing the basis
for their claims,” said Inhofe, R-Okla.
The study released last week by the
Arctic Council and the International
Arctic Science Committee says the Arctic
is particularly vulnerable to warming
from industrial greenhouse gases. It
projects that polar bears could become
extinct, and that seals, caribou, reindeer
herds and the people who depend on
those animals for food also could be
threatened by the thinning sea ice,
melting glaciers and thawing permafrost.
James Connaughton, chairman of
the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, said Tuesday
that the administration’s climate
strategy is far broader than generally
perceived.
“We’re carrying forward an
aggressive program of technology
partnerships and international
partnerships that will reduce the
greenhouse gas intensity of the
American economy by 18 percent,”
Connaughton said. “Our programs go
far beyond our many billions of dollars
in science,” he said, referring to research
and technology programs that he said
exceed $5 billion yearly.
The administration has
acknowledged that Bush’s climate plan,
unveiled in 2002, will not reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases going into the
atmosphere. Instead, it calls on industry
to voluntarily reduce the amount of
greenhouse gases released as a percentage
of economic growth — 18 percent by
2012, or about 1.5 percent a year. That
is about the same rate of reduction that
has occurred over the past 12 years.
Bush in 2001 abandoned a campaign
pledge to restrict carbon dioxide from
burning fossil fuels, then rejected an
international climate treaty for
mandatory controls on carbon dioxide
and other gases that many scientists
blame for warming the atmosphere.
McCain has held more than a dozen
hearings to build support for a bill he
sponsored v/ith Sen. Joe Lieberman, D
Conn., to impose modest mandatory
controls on U.S. greenhouse gases.
Mother arrested after boys found
dead of malnutrition, dehydration
By ERIN VAN BRONKHORST
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KENT, Wash. —A woman with a
history of child neglect complaints was
arrested in a drunken stupor after her
two young boys were found dead in
their apartment of malnutrition and
dehydration, authorities said.
Police entered the apartment of
Marie G. Robinson, 36, in this Seattle
suburb after the children’s father,
newly released from jail, said he had
been unable to contact her by phone
for 10 days and had gotten no response
when he knocked at the door.
Officers found the bodies of Justice
W. Robinson, 16 months, in a crib,
and Raiden A. Robinson, 7 weeks, in a
bassinet.
Their mother was passed out from
alcohol intoxication, lying in bed with
covers over her head, prosecutors said.
Another of Robinson’s children, a
2-year-old boy, was hungry and skinny,
said Officer Paul A. Petersen. He was
checked by emergency technicians and
placed in the care of the grandmother.
Robinson was arrested for
investigation of child mistreatment and
second-degree murder. A judge set her
bail at $2 million Tuesday. Prosecutors
planned to file charges today.
Medical examiners classified both
deaths as homicides. Authorities have
not said how long the children had
been dead.
The woman’s attorney, Colleen
O’Connor, said Robinson has been
distraught and confused since her arrest
Sunday.
“She can’t stop crying and she’s
shaking,” O’Connor said.
State records show Robinson was
investigated on complaints of child
neglect in October 2003 and February
this year. Two complaints in
September 2002 were considered not
serious enough for an investigation.
The child welfare director for those
counties, Chris Robinson, who is not
related to the defendant, said the two
earlier cases were referred to public
health nurses who help struggling
mothers.
“The question for us is, was it
reasonable for us to do anything else?
At this point, it will take a more
thorough review by us to answer that
question,” Robinson said.
Christopher Bone, 32, the
children’s father, was released Sunday
after serving 2 1/2 months in jail for
failing to appear in court on driving
related misdemeanors, authorities
said.
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