Comet Impact

[SimonCole]

As I understand the issue, comet defence is possible on a practical level because solar condenser technology is currently being used to capture radio signals by satellites orbiting the Earth. It is just a question of money.

In response to changing the Earth to suit our needs: This has been widely disputed and one point always wins through. That is that all organisms alter the environment to suit their needs. For example, bacteria respiring, introducing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and causing global warming generated the formation of the atmosphere, as we know it today. Plants later changed the environment by introducing oxygen to the atmosphere. Even on a small ecological scale, if we go into the Amazon we notice a microclimate created by a dense tree canopy that is humid, warm and still... Trees created this. A founding ecological principle is that every organism alters the environment to it's advantage.

I can see no advantage to letting a comet destroy life on Earth for the sake of saving a few quid now. I accuse those that do of Nihilism.

[SimonCole]

I only hold Darwinian beliefs when it comes to questions of our right to alter the environment, but I also have a scientific approach to weighing up the pros and cons. For example, if the question were put: 'should we maintain the smallpox bug?' I would respond along the lines that it's genome may contain material useful to humanity, so on that basis it should be preserved, despite being potentially lethal to man-kind... You get the idea. However, science can only take us so far, so on that basis it is hard to judge whether anything is good or bad... because we may not have enough knowledge to tell. So on that basis I'd ease caution. That is not to say that I would not make a decision if the human race were in jeopardy.

[andrewo]

First, DON'T PANIC, if an asteroid hits worry, comets tend to be built mainly of ice and gases and are easier, in theory, to destroy. We live within a giant asteroid belt, and these asteroids tend to be thrown out by passing galactic forces (like blackholes - yes, they move and travel, and are far more frightening than asteroids, two have been recorded passing close to the sol system since the late 70s - we're talking billions of miles but they still exerted such power as to create sun storms, flaring and asteroids plummeting into Jupiter). The reason why no money has been spent on a galactic protection system is the fact that the cheapest way to do this would be to deploy nuclear missiles on platforms orbitting the earth - oh yes - I know government alive would agree to that, as they could be easily pointed downwards.

The thing we have to accept, is that humanity will one day become extinct on earth, they may have gone to the stars, but we will one day cease to be homosapiens - be it through illness, natural selection, asteroids or plain stupidity, which we have in abundance.

It matters little, as life will carry on, we know little about this planet - and it could even be that man has been here before, died out, vanished and a small tribe survived, mutated, evolved and died out on and on again. There is a great book by Olaf Stapledon, about the rise of the first men and the decline of the last, taking place over billion of years - read it, truly will change your view on where we are now.

Nature finds a way, man is not great, man is not eternal as we think in too narrow a window, we think in minutes and hours, when we should be working along the lines of millenia to attain any form of greatness. We are mayflies compared to the Earth.

When an asteroid hits, Earth will carry on and something else will become the dominant species and will also garden.

[SimonCole]

You have said yourself that comets are mainly gaseous. The problem we have is that comets absorb energy from nuclear bombs and don't alter their course. This would be different if the comet were solid because it could be deflected, through a series of blasts. Some scientists now believe that the best technology for destroying gaseous comets is solar condenser devices. These take 10 years to destroy a comet, so we need more notice!

[TPeers]

Simoncole, I find your arguments convincing - but not in the way you want!

We have no 'God Given' right to control a future impossible to predict.

If you are truly a scientist then you would understand that the risk of a cataclysmic hit from a meteor, asteroid or comet is not high.

Most people who claim a scientific background are reasonable at maths - look at the GNP of the top 5 countries, read up on their balance of payments and just how much it costs to run a country - and be truly thankful that they waste most of it! Politicians are in the trough for what it can get them, despite high ideas at the outset, very few are interested in benefiting future generations. The cost involved in creating a defence as you would like it would require all of the nations on this world to agree to its production. The nations of this world are controlled by politicians!


IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!

[SimonCole]

I think I tend to agree with you TPeers.

You have to believe in god for the 'god given right' idea to win through. I accept that people have a religion, but hope that we do something to prevent comet impact.

[valmarg]

It's been a long time since I've read such a load of tosh!!!

valmarg

[rustylady]

How can you say that we are now at the peak of evolution? What about the Egyptians who built the pyramids, and the Mayans who did the same sort of thing. Their maths and astronomy were far ahead of ours, and we still haven't worked out some of their "secrets"