On Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 5:07:50 PM UTC-7, Chris L Peterson wrote:

True enough. But let it happen just once and see how much money we'll
throw at it. We're very good at dealing (or attempting to deal) with
foreseeable problems once the actually bite us.

Of course, just *one* asteroid equivalent to the one that killed the dinosaurs,
if it hits, would leave none of us around to worry about, let alone deal with,
the next one.

And a *lesser* strike might cause enough economic damage to lessen our means to
create a system to defend against asteroids, even if it meant we now had the
will.

Global warming is another problem that is even more urgent, though.

John Savard