Why Does Washington Ignore the Ultimate Global Warming Threat?
In the 1998 movie Armageddon, audiences thrilled as Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi and Ben Affleck scrambled to save life on Earth from destruction by an asteroid -- and the vast majority left the theater safely confident that such a far-fetched threat could not possibly reflect reality.
They should not have been so sure.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that on March 2, asteroid 2009 DD45 came within about 48,000 miles of Earth. In astronomical terms, that's way too close for comfort. And yet during President Barack Obama's most recent press conference, no reporter asked him about this just-missed catastrophe. The fact is, the world hardly noticed.
Asteroid 2009 DD45 was estimated to be between 69 and 154 feet in diameter. An asteroid that size exploded over Siberia in 1908 and flattened more than 800 square miles of forest, killing everything in its path. Moreover, 2009 DD45 is considered to be the runt of the litter when it comes to the asteroid family -- quite small in relation to the planet-killers screaming through our solar system undetected.
The vast majority of politicians in our country -- Republican or Democrat -- are loath to discuss this subject out of fear of being lumped in with the "flying saucer" people or being considered eccentric by voters. I would argue that 2009 DD45 just proved that if they are not talking about most or all of life on Earth being ended by an asteroid, they are in dereliction of duty. But because of blind luck, the hand of God, or any explanation that helps you sleep better at night, we just avoided unimaginable destruction.
Make no mistake: We had no clue that 2009 DD45 was out there or that it was basically on a years-in-the-making possible collision course with our planet. None. While this close shave raises many questions, two immediate ones come to mind.
First, as our elected officials throw billions of dollars around like they were dimes, do they think they need to invest a bit more money into asteroid detection and collision prevention? Such desperately needed money would be directed at NASA's Near Earth Object Program to first and foremost detect these potential planet-killers; later in the process, NASA would implement a plan that would entail flying (using robots or humans) to the asteroid to employ the most effective way to nudge it off its destructive course.
The second and maybe more pertinent question -- for reasons including but not limited to an asteroid strike -- is, does this latest cosmic scare dictate the need for the governments of the world to come together to formulate a plan to permanently get a representation of humankind off the planet and into the solar system as a way of preserving the species? Leaving aside destruction by an asteroid, human beings tend to be fairly fragile and don't react well to nuclear weapons, terrorism, natural disasters or unforeseen plagues. Isn't it time we covered our bets?
In certain circles, President Barack Obama has been compared to President John F. Kennedy. In September 1962, President Kennedy addressed the importance of having a vibrant and pre-eminent space program. "We mean to be part of it -- we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond... our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us... to become the world's leading space faring nation."
Maybe it's time for our young president to expand upon the words of that young and visionary president and include the survival of the species as an additional reason to be in space. Shouldn't a just-missed global catastrophe be taken seriously by the president, members of Congress and other world leaders?
If they fear talking about it for reasons of embarrassment, they should know that some astronomers think we are long overdue for an asteroid strike. That proof just missed us -- this time.
Douglas MacKinnon has written extensively about space and is a former White House and Pentagon official.
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Blaming lack of preparedness on Republicans is quite a laugh. While Obama bows low overseas, his defense dept decides to cut the millitary, and he claims we need less anti-missile defense. Speaking of likely tragedies, the asteroid certainly pales in comparison with nuclear bombs on our cities from N. Korea, Pakistan, even Iran. Who cares? Thanks to Obama, Europe is beginning to like us. If we get in trouble they'll send flowers.
Sorry but no cigar here Ben....
An asteroid or comet could be seen coming at us tommorow or may NEVER be seen.
Fact is that most folks have NO IDEA period
The sky is something other to them because they can't see it anymore.
Who has time for asteroids when PIRATES are coming for us all!!!!!!!
Oh, GOD help us if we ever have to do something about an object heading for us, because I am totally confident this Congress would actually be forced to debate for days and the vote would have to be 60 to authorize a mission. "We can't be spending hundreds of billions if we don't know if it will work!" Just to be contrary to President Obama.
not to mention the Shift that's supposed to happen in 2012.
Watch the History Channel's Decoding the Past - 2012
or History Channel's Nostradomas 2012 and it will blow your mind.
The way Obama makes 2012 his goal for a new energy grid makes me think he knows.
I wish I hadn't wasted my time on your recommendation. 45 minutes, please.
Perhaps Mr. MacKinnon, it's because for 97% of Americans they sky just doesn't exist!
Why do I say it?
Because they live in American Suburbia, which is heavily LIGHT POLLUTED so they never get to see the wonders of the Universe, like most of humanity did for as long as we have been on this planet.
So...
If you never saw the Milky Way, complete in all it's glory...
CASTING A SHADOW...
Or Meteor Showers 10 to 12 or more times per year....
Or The Aurora Borealis..
If this is NOT a part of your world...
Then it ceases to exist...
That's why it is unimportant because
IT IS NOT A PART OF THEIR WORLD...
And sadly, like that old 1970's adage...
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND....
Hopefully, as the economy trembles..
question our usage of night lighting that steal the stars from almost all of us...
And makes it so that the stars...an
Virtually.
OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND.
"Keep watching the stars!"--THE THING
Show as much proof as one can possibly exert in any time frame and Washington as well as the general public will still turn a blind eye to a growing and noticeable problem. There has to be a creative solution in gaining the attention from the ones in power.
if our Dear Leader said he was going to do something about it...
mmmm, probably not
A real threat. A higher priority, certainly, than saving bank executives from the shame of bankruptcy court. But don't lump it in with global warming - there's already too many people who want to misunderstand it.
Thank You!
Some degree of catastrophic event from space is inevitable unless we do something about it. In the same manner we patrol our borders and air and sea space looking for danger, we MUST do the same in space. The immediate need is not to move/expand the human race off the planet - what we need to do right now is protect the planet.
Any killer asteroid, no matter how big, can be moved off-orbit far enough to save the planet - if we can identify it, get to it, and nudge off-orbit early enough! Those are the technologies we need to mature and deploy as soon as possible.
You are absolutely right that it should be the U.S. leading a world-wide (human race wide) effort to protect the human race from such threats. Every country has something to give (technology, observation sites, etc.) and every country is vulnerable.
Without trying to be a kook, I also think that the only legitimate purpose for nuclear weapons is to defend the human race, not obliterate it. So nuclear weapon technology needs to continue to move forward along with the ability to deploy in a defensive mode.
Armageddon the movie depicted an event that is bound to happen sometime; Fourth of July the movie is only a slight possibility, but if either scenario were to happen, I don't think the outcome will be quite like Hollywood unless we do something about it - now.
How about we just learn to live on the planet we've got. Then later we can think about moving off the planet.
I am mightily impressed by humans on the moon and the other recent explorations of our solar system. The technology amazes me. I'm delighted we have satellites circling the earth, providing me with tv and internet out here in the midde of nowhere. I'm sure we can gain vast amounts of useful knowledge by further exploration, including, I hope, how we can prevent being wiped out by an asteroid.
But the idea of colonizing other planets turns me off. It's usually given as the solution to overpopulation. Is that all we can come up with????? The gazillion of dollars it would take to do that could be put to far greater use on Earth by promoting family planning, providing health care and education to all, switching to sustainable economies and technologies, cleaning up our environment, and so on and so forth - all the stuff we know could and should be done if we are to continue living on this planet with a decent standard of living for all. If we can't do that, then we don't deserve to survive as a species.
All that being said, I would be delighted to see all the neo-cons, greedy bankstas, and power-mad earth-rapers in general being shipped off to some far-flung galaxy, where they can spawn their nastiness away from the rest of us who have common sense and a desire to live in some kind of harmony with our planet.
Earth - love it or leave it.
I think it is our destiny to colonize other planets and moons. Not "manifest destiny" like someone else suggested, however. There's really no comparison. There aren't any native populations to decimate. No pre-existing cultures or ecosystems, or even microbes that we know of so far.
Unless you're harming some other being(s), then what exactly is wrong with exploring and branching out a bit? In the scale of the Universe, we could colonize Venus, Mars, the Moon, some of the gas giants' moons, maybe some asteroids, and it would still be only an infinitesimal speck of the universe that we were occupying. It's not like we're going to crowd the place out.
I think it's just nature for living beings to find and establish new habitats to perpetuate life. If we're the first living things from Earth to bring the seed of life to other planets, we're saving our own civilization and ensuring that life in general will continue diversifying and evolving long after we're extinct.
The technological challenges are beyond us, especially in a time when one major party truly detests the concept of government. There's no profit in it, so it won't get done by private enterprise, and as long as the Republican party exists, it won't get done.
Of course, there's hope. Maybe when the one-party rule Chinese are the dominant nation on the planet there will be some attempt. Until then, don't hold your breath.
Dear Mr. MacKinnon:
Thank you for your sincere and rational argument for addressing the issue of a potentially deadly asteroid strike.
I will not deign to debate your recommendations, as I don't have the knowledge to do so. It's difficult to be against preparation for catastrophic events, when not preventing them from happening is suicidal if they occur. I would say we have quite a number of potentially catastrophic events to work to avoid.
But I would ask you if you have any further recommendations on how to get Mr. Dole's party, which I assume is, or was, also yours, to support such an effort, in view of Bobby Jindal mocking the Obama administration for budgeting for volcano monitoring?
In fact, since Republicans have quite consistently and in aggregate been resistant to rational action on climate change, energy conservation, pollution, and seemingly against science itself, I'm sure the administration, and many of the rest of us, would most welcome any useful advice and insight on how to get Republicans to consider your issue, or the ones I've mentioned, in a rational way.
Dead on.
I have a theory that people were created by God/Mother Earth for the express purpose of preventing asteroids from destroying life. This would explain how constant warfare, which ruins civilizations, might actually have a higher purpose, to develop the necessary tools for deflecting asteroids.
I think you are on to something. However, keep in mind that it's possible humankind is just God's way of preparing the planet as a paradise for cockroaches. Now that's intelligent design.
We should not be allowed to set foot on anything until we have learned how to treat our own planet properly. We were all raised on romantic nonsense about going to other planets because "they're there", because that is our destiny - perhaps even our "Manifest Destiny".
We need to stop looking at the rest of the universe as something we might want to exploit. I have no desire to see us do to the planets what we have already done to the Everglades, the prairies, the great rivers and oceans.
We have already turned near space into a junkyard. Until we can learn some common sense, we should be confined to the home planet.
Actually, if we had listened to someone like you....
None of us would have ever have left AFRICA!
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