I realize that some global warming skeptics - the few still out there - may think the NY Times is the devil's daily.

But for those of you who still have a firm grasp on reality and respect the Times as one of the best sources of information in this fast-changing world, you should know about a story from this morning's front page. The headline: "ON CLIMATE ISSUE, INDUSTRY IGNORED ITS SCIENTISTS.'

Apparently those coal and oil companies that argued for a decade that it could not be proved that human created heat-trapping gases were contributing to global warming should have known better. A document filed in a federal suit now shows the fossil fuel big boys were told by their own scientists "that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted," the Times reports.

An internal report prepared for the greenhouse gas naysayers stated, according to the Times, "The scientific basis for the greenhouse effect and the potential impact of human emissions of grennhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied."

Well, the deniers denied the advice of their own deniers, because it was in their corporate interests to cast doubt and slow development of policies to combat global warming - even if they could never prevail in open scientific debate.Some, like ExxonMobil, have seen the light and have stopped financing such efforts, the Times reports.

Suppression of truth is always a nasty business. This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the telescope to look into space. With that gaze, many hold, modern science was born. For that revolution, and the notion that the earth was not the center of creation, the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo to a long period of house arrest.

As the truth now ebbs out, it is increasingly evident that global warming naysayers have borrowed from the debate tactics of the tobacco companies that long maintained a dubious smokescreen, arguing there was no definitive proof that smoking causes cancer.

Truth ultimately prevails. Happy anniversary, Galileo.