Cosmic impact funding
Quote:
The National Academy of Sciences issued a report this week claiming little is being done to defend Earth from the threat of smaller asteroids, which, if they hit the planet, could cause significant destruction.Photograph by: Courtesy, Don Davis, Reuters Archive, ReutersT he United States is doing little to defend the planet against potentially devastating asteroids and is not doing the basic searches that Congress has ordered, according to a report released on Friday.
While most of the really big and obvious threats are being found, almost nothing is being done to find the smaller objects that are arguably a more likely threat, the strongly worded report from the National Academy of Sciences said.
"It means we are not looking for the small ones which can cause huge damage on Earth," astronomer Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, who helped chair the committee that wrote the report, said in a telephone interview.
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Instead of sending billions to developing (and often corrupt) countries in the name of a dubious and unproven climate science, this is a real risk for mass damage and potentially the end of our current civilization. It wouldn't cost nearly as much, and our ability to actually prevent it is fairly substantial.