[AnotherUnixGeek]

The asteroid that caused the blast was not known before it hit and took astronomers completely by surprise. According to statistical studies of the near-Earth asteroid population, such objects are expected to collide with Earth on average every 2 to 12 years.

This worries me a great deal more than global warming. Asteroid strikes have caused extinction-level events before in Earth's history. We have the technology to at least track potential threats, but as this article indicates, we aren't doing a complete job of it.

[Calamari]

This worries me a great deal more than global warming. Asteroid strikes have caused extinction-level events before in Earth's history. We have the technology to at least track potential threats, but as this article indicates, we aren't doing a complete job of it.

The pols haven't thought up a way to tax us or restrict freedoms based on a big rock heading our way from outer space.

Global warming climate change carbon footprint are so much more useful terms for separating us from freedoms and money than stating a big rock is coming and we can't do anything about it. Give them time and they will figure out a marketing strategy complete with buzz words.

[Ted Grant]

I understand there is a good sized asteroid that will have a near miss with earth sometime in the next decade, and while there is no significant chance it will hit during that pass, some eggheads have figured out that if it passes through a certain ‘window,’ then a clean hit is assured sometime in the late 2030s, and it would be pretty destructive (though not ending life on earth, or anything like that).