UN Plans Asteroid Response Framework 152
chrb writes "The Association of Space Explorers, a non-profit group of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space, has presented a report to the United Nations titled Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response. The UN will now meet in February to discuss the issue and try to define a global political framework for dealing with asteroid-based threats to the Earth."
Re:What timing! (Score:2, Insightful)
That's another thing they'd screw up... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's all well and good to have a bunch of people talking together, but at the end of the day, the UN is utterly useless, and ultimately, the world's going to come looking for the USA for a way out, and then the Americans will quietly ask the British what they think, the French will chime in with their opinion whether anyone likes it or not, and after that brief bit of backchannel talking, the USA will wind up doing something that Europe hailed in private and condemned in public, except for the British, and their people will bitch about the Americans do it, not because its wrong, but they will insist that the British would have done it better had they still had their empire.
How will this be funded? (Score:5, Insightful)
Should funding be broken down by %population of the world, or %landmass occupied? However, I see this as "make the US pay for it". If a non-planet killing asteroid is targeting a nation which has not contributed to the fund/program, should we defend it? The security system on my house doesn't protect my neighbor's, (although my tax dollars which pay for the police, do.).
Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:5, Insightful)
Either way, I have zero faith in the UN being able to put together anything bigger or more complex than a boy scout weekend camping trip without massive corruption, waste and/or bad blood being created between member nations.
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:3, Insightful)
Those police don't actually protect his house you know... they just take pictures and fill out paperwork you send to the insurance company after some hoodlum ransacked your house while you were at work.
God, I hope an anti asteroid system isn't like the police, I'd prefer if it was more like the secret service. You know, everyone is pretty focused on that one important dude, and if he gets offed, a whole bunch of people get fired.
Asteroid 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope it has less holes in it than the .NET Framework
By the time the UN establishes it's framework, the Asteroid will have been upgraded to version 2.0 and then the UN will have to go back and do a whole re-write.
Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I truly do not (Score:5, Insightful)
It is also a natural occurrence that we are here, able to perceive a threat to our species, and eliminate that threat.
Re:I truly do not (Score:3, Insightful)
believe we should be messing with the natural occurances of the solar system. Asteroid collisions are how we got here, how we will end, and how a new smarter, more capable species will come again. Let it happen naturally. End of story.
Tell you what, next time you get critically ill or injured, we should just let you die a natural death so that a new smarter and more capable person can take your place. I say let it happen naturally, End of story.
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:3, Insightful)
Volunteer fire departments have that same problem -- what to do about people who refuse to contribute? Most have hit on a simple solution: if you don't pay your fair share to support the VFD, they *will* just stand by and let your house burn. Usually it only takes one such example.
Second, considering that asteroid hits are neither an everyday occurrance, nor something we can realistically defend against anyway, one has to wonder just exactly who benefits from the money this will suck out of the U.S.
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:3, Insightful)
Offsite backups (Score:4, Insightful)
For true disaster preparedness the only solution is a backup hot site. Mars would be nice.
Re:That's another thing they'd screw up... (Score:1, Insightful)
if you look closely the US isn't doing too well recently!
without Russian supply ships the ISS is cut off. deficit spending not only the state but the whole country.
And -I tell you confidently - there are more ways to skin a cat than the US way.
Re:Oh, great (Score:2, Insightful)
No, there are many things the UN does well [democracyarsenal.org]. Also, the Oil For Food Program did accomplish its humanitarian goal [oilforfoodfacts.org], despite the corruption. The UN had no authority or the resources to stop smuggling, although it did warn about it. The nations responsible for it, among them the US and UK, didn't do much about it at the time, however.
I'm not sure that I'd like men in blue helmets watching the skies, but their incompetence and corrupion is exaggerated.
Re:How will this be funded? (Score:3, Insightful)