Posted on 10/26/2010 7:37:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ah yes, the liberal mantra of "We're destroying the Earth with CO2, but we can't destroy a small rock with 1,000 nuclear missiles."
Sigh...
It's utterly untrue, but makes for a catchy mantra to mindlessly repeat.
“Asteroids have annihilated plenty of species on earth.”
And giving someone, maybe the UN, the power to land a 100M rock at 27,000 FPS is insane. We’ve got to grow up before we start messing with asteroid warfare.
The most major threat to the human race other than I-slam is probably genetic entropy.
That process is inevitable, making it not a "threat" but a certain destiny.
Inbreeding increases the downward slope to "poodle-ization" of the population. That is, when one confines the genetic pool, one ends up with a worthless dog that is weak, sick and high maintenance at least when compared to a mutt (that with higher genetic diversity).
Curiously, those who like to tinker with human genetics with the aim of creating a master race for some reason like to breed out genetic information so we end up with "poodles". On the other hand, one could argue that the raping and pillaging (mostly the raping) of the population by invading foreign armies actually decreases the slope of genetic entropy making for hardier progeny. This could be one of those extremly rare good "unintended consequences" of UN Peace keeping missions into the third world.
I don't know how they define the "distant past", but the Tunguska event in 1908 - only 102 years ago - had about 30 Megaton of energy. If it were to strike not in the middle of nowhere but, say, in Europe, it would be much harder to forget.
“If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!”
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.
Another one?!
Didn’t we just get hit by an’asteroid’ in 2008? That one has changed American civilization as we knew it.
“I would put China high on the list of countries”
Followed by Japan and India. Russia is stuck in LEO, moreso now with the Shuttle gone.
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.
So what is your point?
If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.
Depending on its size,Few on the Earth will survive.
There is no way we could get ONE nuke out to where it needs to be. The Shuttle only went 450 miles high, about the drive from NYC to DC. That would be seconds before impact, maybe less.
We need to get the nukes out by the orbit of Mars to be effective, and we simply can’t do that now. With a dozen years to plan, maybe.
“So what is your point? “
lol! The death toll would include more than John Kerry and Olympia Snowe, is the point! Lots more.
“Depending on its size,Few on the Earth will survive.”
Chesapeake was not as large as Chixulub, or Manson, but yes, an asteroid strike on DC could kill a huge percentage of land-based life, not just people.
I don’t know of anyone building a space ark, yet...
Nah, that was a hemorrhoid in 2008!
We’ll worry about the asteroid after we excise the National Hemorrhoid, in 2012.
Is this the October surprise? :)
Maybe the US should deal with it’s giant HEMORRHOID first.
“US Must Prepare for Asteroid”
I thought there was one already in the white house.
Talk about damage control, eh?
Hilda and Trojan asteroids corotating with Jupiter.
Nuclear explosions leave readily measurable radioactive by-products. Unless the survivors had only pre-20th century technology, a nuclear explosion would be identified as such.
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