Bush Administration offers warning to world: Armagedon Asteroids will be kept secret!

[monkspider]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=378392

Armageddon asteroids 'best kept secret'
15 February 2003


A scientific adviser to the United States government has suggested that secrecy might be the best option if scientists were ever to discover that a giant asteroid was on course to collide with Earth.

In certain circumstances, nothing could be done to avoid such a collision and ensuing destruction, and it would be best not to tell the public anything, said Geoffrey Sommer, of the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California.

"When a problem arises with high uncertainty, there is an opportunity to spin the problem to avoid global panic. If you can't do anything about a warning, then there is no point in issuing a warning at all," Dr Sommer told the association yesterday.

"If an extinction-type impact is inevitable, then ignorance for the populace is bliss. As a matter of common sense, if you can't intercept it and you can't move people out of the way in time, there's nothing you can do in terms of reducing the costs of the potential impact," he said.

"Overreaction not just by the public but by policy-makers scurrying around before the thing actually hits because we can't do anything about it anyway ... to a large extent you are better off not adding to your social costs," said Dr Sommer, who is also an adviser on terrorism.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is conducting a 25-year survey of the sky to find asteroids wider than a kilometre which could have a devastating impact if they collided with Earth.

So far they have determined the orbits of about 60 per cent of these objects and none so far have a trajectory that threatens the world within the next couple of centuries, said David Morrison of Nasa's Ames laboratory in Moffat Field, California.

"There are, however, many things out there that we know nothing about," he said.


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Do you agree with this policy? Is this nothing more than a thinly veiled threat to punish Iraq dissenters? Could a giant Meteor be enough to break up the sharply divided NATO?

[Sava]

I think denying the knowledge of one's death is perhaps the cruelest thing imaginable. There are many things that people would not be able to do before their death. This is a stupid policy. Should doctors not inform people about terminal illness? Or cancer?

[Ted Striker]

Bruce Willis will take care of any emegencies.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Bruce Willis will take care of any emegencies.

Only if I get to have sex with Liv Tyler!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Sava


Only if I get to have sex with Liv Tyler!

Not a bad idea.

[BustaMike]

Sex with Liv Tyler might not be all it's cracked up to be. She'll probably be crying and asking if you have animal crackers.

[St Leo]

Bush = Evil.

[Spiffor]

This is a completely stupid policy. Who cares about the social costs, once we know an extinction-impact is on the way ?

This scientist would advocate a pilot not to tell the passengers the plane is crashing.

[Tiamat]

Agreed. Bad idea. It offeres no one who is religious to say their last rights or make their peace.

[Main_Brain]

Anarchy, Plunder , Murder, Rape, Failure of State/Electricity/water Supply because noone works..
Yes I see the point of not telling, dont know wheter thats good/bad though.

[KrazyHorse]

How could the US keep it secret? Other countries have telescopes too, and asteroid spotting is hit-and-miss out to a few million kilometers. It's quite possible (likely?) that the US wouldn't even be the first one to detect it, and once it was within a few million kilometers (or so, depending on size) the amateur astronomers of the world would be phoning in their discovery...

[Lancer]

There are lots of crazy people who are behaving themselves out of fear of civil authority and punishment. If a death penalty is inevitable then every crackpot with a knife or gun is going to go out raping and murdering to their fullest. Do you expect law enforcement to continue in their jobs? Prison guards? They will want to spend their last days with family and to hell with the world. Many people will spend their last days in absolute terror, because of the violent reactions of others, if the world is informed.

No, this is totally different from not telling a patient of terminal cancer...

I'm not saying that I wouldn't inform the world, just that there is alot to the decision that should be considered.

Should we execute all those convicted of violent crime before the announcement? Dwell on that...

Sure, I would want some time to pray...

There's alot to consider.

[monolith94]

"Bush = Evil."
Not a fan of the ladies, are you?
Me, I like bush, and lots of it!

[aaglo]

That's bad. I would like to know what killed me.

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by Frogger
How could the US keep it secret? Other countries have telescopes too, and asteroid spotting is hit-and-miss out to a few million kilometers. It's quite possible (likely?) that the US wouldn't even be the first one to detect it, and once it was within a few million kilometers (or so, depending on size) the amateur astronomers of the world would be phoning in their discovery...

You clearly don't watch the news which comes from Hollywood. The US is the only country capable of doing anything. Their scientists,engineers and militray are the only compotent ones in the world.

Apparently the Russians are all let down by rusty equipment.The British are plucky but too stuck up. The Chinese are evil.The rest of Europe are too busy masterminding large scale crime/terrorist operations.

So when it comes to this sort thing only the US will do