The truth, in this case, is that global warming is threatening human health, and the threat is likely to worsen as global temperatures continue to rise, causing more smog, extreme weather and disease. That's the conclusion of a study conducted by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency and released this week, somehow avoiding the suppression of science that's been the strategy of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney's office has been accused of altering sworn testimony in January in order to downplay scientific warnings compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This week's EPA report makes it clear that the risks to human health, our way of life and the environment will increase as climate change accelerates and its effects broaden across the globe.

The EPA scientists, at odds with the attempts by the White House to stifle or refute the science of climate change, called the fact of global warming "unequivocal" and said that human activity definitely is to blame.

The administration deceptively tried to keep the study under wraps because its conclusions mean the government should no longer avoid taking action to reduce global warming, even if it hurts the bottom line of the oil industry and others that are responsible for the spewing of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

President Bush just last week said the EPA would not act to reduce CO2 emissions, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that specifically said the EPA has the authority to do so under the Clean Air Act.

But the EPA report lays the groundwork either for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act or, as the EPA scientists would prefer, under a new law targeting global warming specifically.

Not surprisingly, oil industry representatives argued against that proposal and also maintained this week that the EPA's conclusion that carbon emissions cause climate change and that climate change is negatively affecting human health is weak.

The president undoubtedly will continue to put obstacles in the way of any law that targets carbon emissions. But, come January, a new president and Congress will have a road map for CO2 reduction designed by government scientists who, thankfully, have fought this administration's efforts to keep us on a path to disaster.