Posted on 11/16/2004 7:12:48 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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 (news - web sites), 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 (news, bio, voting record) called on President Bush (news - web sites) 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 (news, bio, voting record), 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 with Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), D-Conn., to impose modest mandatory controls on U.S. greenhouse gases.
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On the Net:
Senate Commerce: http://commerce.senate.gov
Bush climate strategy: http://globalchange.gov
Arctic study: http://www.acia.uaf.edu
Why are we bowing to the enrviron wackos?
Then they'd better stuff corks in both ends of our nation's cows. Their gaseous expulsions are very methane-rich.
Ask McCainiac and SchwarzeGReeno. ;-)
The earth warms and cools over the eons, with or without any human interference.
Coulda seen this coming from Leavitt.
... and Nixon went to China.
This is gonna be a fun thread.
I guess it'll be against international law for me to have a bean burrito before long.
My dear wife, who is so much smarter than me, says that
I'm trying to kill her with poison gas as we snuggle in
bed.
Some things a guy's gotta do.
Nice that she's got the EPA on her side.
Are we going to start taxing farts?
You and your incessant burrito eating. ;-)
There is an thread "Jab to cut methane emissions ^ , about a vaccine that essentially defeats the ability of microbes to do their thing.. currently targeting sheep, but someday, who knows, a vaccine for sheople might not be that far off. ;-)
Look for it to be proposed in California as part of the Gubinator's attempt to rein in the deficit. I don't think it will pass, but... :-]
What, you want to remove the joy from my life?
No matter how sophisticated a person may profess to be, deep down inside a fart joke will get them every time.
Don't beleive me? Try http://www.fart.com
I hate cold weather and I do my part to provide methane to the atmosphere daily and assure warm weather year round!
Does this mean no more farting?
groanup's revenge. Oops! sorry. Methane.
http://www.fartfarm.com
Me and my cat just both had a methane emission reading this
The same reason Bush has allowed the ACLU to ban Boy Scouts on military bases.
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