[meteorite-list] Catastrophic Disaster Response Needs More Study in the Event of Asteroid Impact

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 1 11:01:13 2005
Message-ID: <3j4eh1peu8191qt8dgtv1ds1dr7h95f4o2_at_4ax.com>

So many people talk about what he could do to try to prevent a sizable asteroid strike, but I
honestly think all of the currently science fiction solutions will remain science fiction solutions.
I think that there are some problems that just can't be solved. I think that, if any asteroid big
enough to cause catostrophic damage is on course to hit us then, unless we discover it years out, it
IS going to hit us. And even if we could protect against a largish asteroid then we could still be
wiped out by, say, a supernova or a pair of colliding neutron stars or black holes in the
neighborhood-- and there is NOTHING to protect from that. Sooner or later, something is going to
get you, and occasionally, it gets lots of people at once. It is like the AA or some x-step program
slogan "grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the
things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

As for the sad state of affairs in New Orleans, the giant, expensive response should have been to
pay to relocate the residents and abandon the city years ago, because people have known for years
that, sooner or later, this exact thing would happen.

See:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282151.html

http://www.sacoriver.net/~wolfrun/SciAmNO.pdf
Received on Thu 01 Sep 2005 11:06:18 AM PDT