http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4794121.stm
Astronomers (and a few far-sighted politicians such as MP Lembit Opik) have been calling for ten years for proper funding for an international 'Spaceguard' program, to catalogue asteroids which may impact our planet. The proposed cost of this would be around £100 million - less than the cost of making a single Hollywood film such as 'Armageddon' or 'Deep Impact' - yet it seems we as a race prefer risking annihilation to spending 2p per person to save ourselves. With an attitude like that, we're 'doomed, Captain Wainwaring, doomed'. (Or is it possible that the people in power really are all alien lizards who want to kill us off and have this planet for themselves...?)
Jim Abury, Leeds, UK
Astronomers (and a few far-sighted politicians such as MP Lembit Opik) have been calling for ten years for proper funding for an international 'Spaceguard' program, to catalogue asteroids which may impact our planet. The proposed cost of this would be around £100 million - less than the cost of making a single Hollywood film such as 'Armageddon' or 'Deep Impact' - yet it seems we as a race prefer risking annihilation to spending 2p per person to save ourselves. With an attitude like that, we're 'doomed, Captain Wainwaring, doomed'. (Or is it possible that the people in power really are all alien lizards who want to kill us off and have this planet for themselves...?)
Jim Abury, Leeds, UK
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