Request for Cosmic Collision Insurance

Posted by michael on Thursday July 10, 2003 @04:15AM from the playing-the-lottery dept.

HobbySpacer writes "According to this article a group of distinguished citizens has sent an open letter to Congress, the President, and other world leaders to request that they begin a serious program to protect the planet from the possible impact of a comet or asteroid. The petitioners include Freeman Dyson, Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Neil Tyson (Director of the Hayden Planetarium) and others. They say that for "the first time in human history, we have the potential to protect ourselves from a catastrophe of truly cosmic proportions." A three phase program is urged that includes detection, exploration, and contingency planning. See the full letter at www.CongressNEOaction.org"

2 of 68 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

I read th letter and ... by Arthaed · 2003-07-10 04:26 · Score: 5, Funny

I think they are implying that the US plan of having a group of oil rig drillers ready to go, won't save us ...

--
Unique signatures are rare.
Unlikely to Happen by Raghead · 2003-07-10 04:31 · Score: 5, Insightful

Humans seem to be unable to comprehend the need for action in this kind of low probability/extremely devasting situation. Nobody living has seen anything like this kind of catastrophe, so the public won't relate to it even if they hear about it. Our leaders don't grasp that a very low probability just means that given a long enough timeframe, the event will still likely occur.