Governments are set to miss a self-imposed goal of slowing the rate of extinctions by 2010 and as a result are putting long-term food supplies at risk, a top environmentalist said before a UN biodiversity conference. Jim Leape, Director General of the WWF, told Reuters that countries at the May 19-30 UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in the German city of Bonn must admit they are doing too little and step up their commitments.

until now, it was believed that methane, from cattle dung and paddy cultivation, was the second biggest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. A recent review says soot is the second

PORTLAND, Oregon: Senator John McCain sought to distance himself from President George W. Bush this week as he called for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States to combat climate change. McCain, in a speech on Monday at a wind power company, also pledged to work with the European Union to diplomatically engage China and India, two of the world's biggest polluters, if the nations refuse to participate in an international agreement to slow global warming.

Senator John McCain intensified his criticism of President Bush and the administration's environmental polices on Tuesday, taking a walk in the cold, rain-drenched foothills of the Cascade Mountains and asserting that in the effort to stem climate change, "America can lead and not obstruct.'