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." 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. -Redlands, Calif.

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: