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The Social Difficulty of Saving Earth From an Asteroid

Posted by timothy on from the how-to-really-get-godzilla dept.

mantis2009 writes "When it comes to stopping a cataclysmic Earth vs. asteroid event, social science and international political leaders have more difficult questions yet unanswered than physicists do, according to report delivered at this week's American Geophysical Union meeting. Wired has a discussion of an analysis authored by former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who worries that the international community is nowhere near ready to begin the complex and inevitably controversial task of deflecting an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Among the questions to be answered is whether to modify the Partial Test Ban Treaty to allow nuclear weapons in outer space. Another possibility to avoid the destruction of civilization would require the international community to choose an area on the globe where an asteroid might be 'aimed.' Who would decide which nations get placed in the asteroid's crosshairs?"

7 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Simpsons did it... by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's your least favorite country: Italy or France?

    1. Re:Simpsons did it... by ZeRu · · Score: 3, Funny

      If I had the power to decide where to aim the asteroid, I would choose Australia. They're formal penal colony, have low density of population, lots of dangerous animal species, and their government wants to censor the Internet. Also, unlike Italy and France, they don't have famous wines and cheeses. I say go for Australia, asteroid!

      --
      If you post as an AC, don't expect me to spend a mod point on you.
    2. Re:Simpsons did it... by Armakuni · · Score: 3, Funny

      Heh. No one ever says Italy.

      --
      That's not Picasso, that's Kandinsky!
    3. Re:Simpsons did it... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Funny
      Shhhhh, just leave them to it.

      As long as the Americans are in charge, there's an 80% chance the asteroid'll land smack in the middle of Vienna.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  2. And the target is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    -Can't be USA -- I'm writing this from there.
    -Can't be Antartica -- We all love them Penguins
    -Can't be the Artic -- Ditto for the polar bears
    -Can't be France -- too obvious
    -Can't be the Middle East -- Our oil comes from there.
    -Can't be China -- We'd all die from the toxic dust cloud stirred up from the impact.

    So, that pretty much leaves:
                                Quebec

    I mean, sure, we all love Canada. Great comedy, good place for NFL up-and-coming players to practice (CFL for those who don't get it), and also home to many polar bears (See Antartic above).

    But face it: even CANADA doesn't like Quebec!

    I mean, what do they have? Good baseball? Nope. Good football team? Nope. Good comedy? Do Quebecois even HAVE comedy?

    And best of all:
    Quebec doesn't have UN veto power.

    Problem solved!

  3. Re:An ocean? Antartica? by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 4, Funny

    How could you be so callous towards the massive loss of penguin life?! On Slashdot, no less!! You must be a Mac or *BSD fanboi. Or a Microsoft shill. Any truly free-thinking individual would obviously recommend somewhere else.

    --
    Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
  4. Re:An ocean? Antartica? by IBBoard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Antarctica? That'd be one hell of a curve shot to whip it underneath the Earth and up! Don't you know from all of those SciFi shows that asteroids come in perfectly horizontal and that the whole universe is like a plate. That's why ships can't avoid each other by flying higher or on a different plane - because there is only one plane that everything flies along!