Dear Ann Landers,
am the mother of two small children. I have a job outside my home. All of this keeps me extremely busy. I have never had the time or felt a real desire to write to you before today. An outraged reader recently wrote to you about global warming and the so-called greenhouse effect. Please read the enclosed story from the San Bernardino Sun in California. "University researchers will strap gas-measuring equipment to cows to find out how bovine belching might be contributing to the green-house effect. Washington State University researchers will get $70,000 a year for three years from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine how much methane cows and other cud-chewing animals make when they belch." ThF Rtst of Ann Uniiers / I 5 *1 I never would have believed it if someone just told me about this. It sounds like some of the sensational garbage that you might see in a su-permarket tabloid. Ann, please tell me this isn't true. I hate to think our Environmental Protection Agency is throwing away money on such an absurd re-search project. If they would like some suggestions for their $70,000, I'd like to remind them of the homeless and hungry people in our country.

Dear Red,
We spoke with A1 Ruddy, associate director of News and Information Services at Washington State University. He said: "The news story is true. Although this might seem like a foolish expenditure, it's not. Here's why: "There are two primary gases involved in the greenhouse effect: car-bon dioxide and methane. Methane traps radiation in the Earth's at-mosphere, and its production is increasing about 1 percent every year. The three primary sources of methane are wetlands, rice fields and cat-tle. Cows belch four to six times a minute and produce about 15 per-cent of all our methane. If man wishes to use natural gas as a source of fuel, it will necessitate releasing more methane into the atmosphere. Before we can safely do that, we must find out how much methane is produced already." Clear? Well, I hope so, because A1 Ruddy did his darndest to sim-plify it for me. Our pets depend on us to take care of them and see that they are supervised properly. Here are a couple of letters that should be read by pet lovers every-where: