A draft UN treaty to determine what would have to be done if a giant asteroid was on a collision course with Earth is to be drawn up this year.
The document would set out global policies including who should be in charge of plans to deflect any object.
It is the brainchild of the Association of Space Explorers, a professional body for astronauts and cosmonauts.
At the moment Nasa is monitoring 127 near earth objects (NEO) that have a possibility of hitting the earth.
The association has asked a group of scientists, lawyers, diplomats and insurance experts to draw up the recommendations.
The group will have their first meeting in Strasbourg in May this year. It is hoped the final document will be presented to the UN in 2009.
"We believe there needs to be a decision process spelled out and adopted by the United Nations," said Dr Russell Schweickart, one of the Apollo 9 astronauts and founder of the Association of Space Explorers.
The threat of an asteroid hitting the Earth is being taken more and more seriously as more and more NEOs are found.
Diversely We Sail was begun in part to chronicle our collective descent into madness, but it is rare to be presented with such double-barrelled evidence at the same time. Does the greater insanity lie in everybody worrying about being hit by asteroids or in thinking the UN is the best body to prevent it?
5 comments:
The document would set out global policies including who should be in charge of plans to deflect any object.
Like, duh.
That's literally a no-brainer at the moment, in the sense that choosing any nation other than the obvious one would be pretty strong evidence that the chooser had no brain.
For this we need a draft treaty and a multi-year approval process ?
The U.N. or the Asteroid? Is that something like the Lady or the Tiger?
And, as will surprise nobody, according to UNICEF there will never be an end to world poverty, because they're now defining "poverty" as "income under the national median", as Brit reports.
Obviously this is a bureacratic gig to ensure lifetime emplpyment for ex-astronauts. Just as Y2K was for COBOL programmers. If you can spin a tale of looming disaster that has some tangential connection to your area of expertise, then just propose the formation of a planning commission to the UN and you will have job security for your lifetime.
Frankly, I think that worrying about the dinosaur killers is the perfect problem for the United Nations, and the United Nations is the perfect institution to worry about the problem.
Post a Comment