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UN Plans Asteroid Response Framework

Posted by samzenpus on from the where's-bruce-willis dept.

chrb writes "The Association of Space Explorers, a non-profit group of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space, has presented a report to the United Nations titled Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response. The UN will now meet in February to discuss the issue and try to define a global political framework for dealing with asteroid-based threats to the Earth."

17 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What timing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Flashblock means you don't need to worry about Youtube rickrolling.

  2. That's another thing they'd screw up... by tjstork · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's all well and good to have a bunch of people talking together, but at the end of the day, the UN is utterly useless, and ultimately, the world's going to come looking for the USA for a way out, and then the Americans will quietly ask the British what they think, the French will chime in with their opinion whether anyone likes it or not, and after that brief bit of backchannel talking, the USA will wind up doing something that Europe hailed in private and condemned in public, except for the British, and their people will bitch about the Americans do it, not because its wrong, but they will insist that the British would have done it better had they still had their empire.

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    This is my sig.
    1. Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... by bensafrickingenius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And no doubt the UN will soon impanel a subcommittee which will spend millions of US dollars to generate a report condemning the US for causing this Asteroid crisis...

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      I am not left-handed, either!
    2. Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... by Ruvim · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In result, USA solution will be using Russians, hired cheap off the Russian military, using old Soviet technology...

    3. Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... by kubitus · · Score: 1, Insightful
      US or UN?

      if you look closely the US isn't doing too well recently!

      without Russian supply ships the ISS is cut off. deficit spending not only the state but the whole country.

      And -I tell you confidently - there are more ways to skin a cat than the US way.

  3. How will this be funded? by HockeyPuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Should funding be broken down by %population of the world, or %landmass occupied? However, I see this as "make the US pay for it". If a non-planet killing asteroid is targeting a nation which has not contributed to the fund/program, should we defend it? The security system on my house doesn't protect my neighbor's, (although my tax dollars which pay for the police, do.).

    1. Re:How will this be funded? by east+coast · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This theoretical asteroid would know no man-made boundaries. It's unlikely that the overall effect that it will produce would be able to be narrowed down to a single nation or even a small group of them. The ripple such an event would cause would touch everyone's life in some fashion.

      Either way, I have zero faith in the UN being able to put together anything bigger or more complex than a boy scout weekend camping trip without massive corruption, waste and/or bad blood being created between member nations.

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      Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    2. Re:How will this be funded? by Broken+scope · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Those police don't actually protect his house you know... they just take pictures and fill out paperwork you send to the insurance company after some hoodlum ransacked your house while you were at work.

      God, I hope an anti asteroid system isn't like the police, I'd prefer if it was more like the secret service. You know, everyone is pretty focused on that one important dude, and if he gets offed, a whole bunch of people get fired.

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      You mad
    3. Re:How will this be funded? by Reziac · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Volunteer fire departments have that same problem -- what to do about people who refuse to contribute? Most have hit on a simple solution: if you don't pay your fair share to support the VFD, they *will* just stand by and let your house burn. Usually it only takes one such example.

      Second, considering that asteroid hits are neither an everyday occurrance, nor something we can realistically defend against anyway, one has to wonder just exactly who benefits from the money this will suck out of the U.S.

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      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    4. Re:How will this be funded? by ThunderThor53 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And how do you propose accounting for the 2/3 of Earth that is water? %landmass + %coastline? The tsunamis from an ocean landing are likely to cause more devastation than a dirt landing - and are more likely to occur.

    5. Re:How will this be funded? by Kagura · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As far as I'm aware, troops in South Korea are still under UN command and aren't scheduled to be switched over until 2012 or so (according to previous agreements) at the soonest.

    6. Re:How will this be funded? by seven+of+five · · Score: 2, Insightful

      An asteroid big enough to wipe out a city would also set fires to surrounding area, sending black smoke into the atmosphere. Cutting incoming sunlight for everyone. Not many threats are so small as to be completely ignored on the global scale.

  4. Asteroid 2.0 by Freaky+Spook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope it has less holes in it than the .NET Framework

    By the time the UN establishes it's framework, the Asteroid will have been upgraded to version 2.0 and then the UN will have to go back and do a whole re-write.

  5. Re:I truly do not by Dripdry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is also a natural occurrence that we are here, able to perceive a threat to our species, and eliminate that threat.

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  6. Re:I truly do not by BlackusDiamondus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    believe we should be messing with the natural occurances of the solar system. Asteroid collisions are how we got here, how we will end, and how a new smarter, more capable species will come again. Let it happen naturally. End of story.

    Tell you what, next time you get critically ill or injured, we should just let you die a natural death so that a new smarter and more capable person can take your place. I say let it happen naturally, End of story.

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    Shit happens and it's usually caused by assholes
  7. Offsite backups by symbolset · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For true disaster preparedness the only solution is a backup hot site. Mars would be nice.

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    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  8. Re:Oh, great by HertzaHaeon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, there are many things the UN does well. Also, the Oil For Food Program did accomplish its humanitarian goal, despite the corruption. The UN had no authority or the resources to stop smuggling, although it did warn about it. The nations responsible for it, among them the US and UK, didn't do much about it at the time, however.

    I'm not sure that I'd like men in blue helmets watching the skies, but their incompetence and corrupion is exaggerated.