If your car were barreling towards a cliff, would you step on the gas and tell yourself to "adapt to the coming changes"? Well, that's exactly what the Bush Administration did last week in its report to the United Nations on global warming.

The report, published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reversed the Bush Administration's previous position that there is insufficient scientific evidence to blame global warming on human activities. It admitted that greenhouse gases are accumulating "as a result of human activities", causing global air and ocean temperatures to rise.

The report also noted that global warming could cause what most of us would say were environmental catastrophes. These include the disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal islands, the possibility of sustained drought in the West and average sea level rises of 19 inches. Nonetheless, the report determined mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases were unnecessary and that, astonishingly, we needed to adapt instead to these inevitable changes in our climate and lives.

Despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency, whose top officials are Bush appointees, published the report, the President is now backing away from it, claiming it was "put out by the bureaucracy." On such a highly controversial issue, it is unimaginable that EPA Administrator Christy Whitman did not review the document. Blaming the bureaucracy, led by your own appointees, for this heavy dose of reality is ludicrous.

In rejecting the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, President Bush said it "would severely damage the United States economy." According to his Administration's report to the United Nations, the effects of global warming would be far more catastrophic to the United States economy that any measures we could take to diminish it.

Imagine the impacts on Western states' economies if the current drought continues. Our rivers would run dry, our ski areas would have neither snow nor water to make snow. Our wheat and corn fields would produce little or nothing. Our cities would shrivel with thirst. The horrendous fires we are experiencing this year would continue to wreak havoc on forests, ranches and homes.

And that's just in the Western interior. Imagine sea walls along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. What happens to property owners whose land is now ocean or whose pastures are now desert? Sound farfetched? The Administration's own report points out that "with higher sea levels, coastal regions could be subject to increased wind and flood damage." It talks about the possibility of droughts and the need for new strategies, such as "changing planting dates and varieties to significantly offset economic losses."

The costs of reducing global warming may be considerable, but they pale compared to the enormity of our losses if we don't act. To its credit, the Bush Administration has laid out a voluntary plan for cutting greenhouse emissions 18% over the next 10 years. But, it's not enough. There are clear actions the United States can and must take. It makes no sense to go off this cliff when we know we can do things to halt the impending economic and environmental tragedy.

We can put more resources into renewable energy research. We can put stricter fuel efficiency requirements on our automobiles. We can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from factories and farms. We can increase our efforts to trade debt reduction for forest protection and reforestation in poor countries. We can protect our own forests from acid rain and excessive commercial use. While some of this is in the President's voluntary plan, the effort is woefully inadequate.

It is folly to blame bureaucrats and tout adaptation to potentially disastrous climate changes rather than taking clear, decisive action on global warming. We know what we need to do. We know it will be expensive. We also know that the costs of doing little will be far more damaging to our economy than correcting our course immediately. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for leadership. As the President's own EPA reported, our economy and our way of life depend on it.