LANDSCAPE:Cold to global warming

Huntington Beach Rep. Dana Rohrabacher hasn't been in step with President Bush on issues such as immigration, but he stuck closer to Bush this week in his comments on climate change.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hobnobbed with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Long Beach earlier this week to talk about how to reduce emissions that some consider responsible for global warming. In response, Rohrabacher's office sent out a press release offering his take on "the myth of human-caused global warming."

"There's obvious evidence that we're going through a warming trend in the Earth's history, as we've gone through many cycles of warming and cooling throughout the hundreds of millions of years of global history," Rohrabacher said by phone Wednesday while relaxing on the beach in Newport with his family.

People only contribute about 5% of the total amount of greenhouse gases, he said, adding that more such emissions come from natural sources such as termites eating plants in rain forests.

"It's very questionable whether greenhouse gases are causing global warming, by the way," Rohrabacher said. "If you believe what the global warming people say about greenhouse gases causing this, what you really want to do is bulldoze all the rain forests and plant young trees Â… because that's where most of the greenhouse gases come from."

Global warming alarmists simply want to control people's lifestyles and expand government powers, he said. And while that view may seem like the minority in Washington, "I think there's a lot of people who don't open their mouths," he said.

CITIES LOOK TO GET TOGETHER

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa officials on Wednesday held the first of several meetings to try to hammer out a comprehensive solution to the two cities' annexation concerns. Not much was decided, except that the various parties — including representatives of the county and several unincorporated areas adjacent to Newport-Mesa — will meet again Aug. 18.

Meanwhile, the Santa Ana Country Club and residents in a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive, two of the areas in question, plan to file an application within two weeks to be put into Newport Beach's "sphere of influence," giving that city the first right to provide services and request annexation.