A few weeks ago, sky watchers eagerly awaited the close approach of asteroid 2012 DA14, a 150-foot-wide chunk of rock that was lined up and ready to skim the Earth’s atmosphere. By skimming I mean it was not going to be as low as the International Space Station, but it was going to be lower than some of the weather satellites we have orbiting the planet. It was going to be low enough for some backyard telescopes to see it. What I’m trying to empress is that the object was going to be close, and we (all the space agencies around the world) new where it was going to be, where best to view and most importantly that it wasn’t going to hit the Earth.
I feel so much better knowing that NASA and all the other space agencies in different countries are diligently watching space for any potential threat.
Now let’s jump to the day of the event. A large portion of the Earth’s scientist and backyard enthusiast are looking forward to following the event by watching the sky or computer screens for updates. How surprising when it was when they turned on their computers or TVs for updates and saw that another meteor had exploded over Russia, causing much damage and several injuries. How surprising it is that the space agencies around the world didn’t even know about this meteor.
One of the things that bugs me about this whole big rock gonna hit the Earth talk is statements like this: “The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive causalities and destruction of infrastructure are very small,” John Holdren, science advisor to Obama. Is just absolutely crazy, all anyone needs to do is look at the moon, it is pock marked with a history of impacts and it’s a smaller target than Earth.
When the space agency chief Charles Bolden was asked by Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) what NASA would do if a large asteroid headed on a collision course with Earth was discovered today with only three weeks before impact. The response was simple “if it’s coming in three weeks, pray.” That kind of makes me happy the Catholic Church just elected a new Pope, Prayer and a new Pope gotta be a good thing.
But all kidding aside, asteroids and meteors are out there and some of them are bound to hit the Earth, some large enough to do damage, a lot of damage. And the way I see it, we can take heed of the space agency chief’s suggestion and pray, we can call on our congressmen and senators to put an emphasis on the space program, or we can prepare for a disaster.
How do you prepare for a large chunk of rock or ice slamming into the Earth at supersonic speeds? That is easy, because there are only three possible outcomes. One – The object does none to minimal damage like the explosion over Russia. Two – The object does complete destruction and wipes out the current crop of life forms to wander aimlessly on the surface of the Earth. Three – The object causes enough damage to wipe out the infrastructure, which would put us back to either a hunter-gatherer or agrarian lifestyle. Scenario three is the only one that you can possible be prepared for and that’s easy, learn how to live without having to rely on stores. That means gardening, farming, and bartering for those things you can’t produce yourself with those things you have in abundance.
I realize that many people cannot buy or build a farm where they are, but some things can be done. Some of the best books on the subject I’ve put in the scrolling bar below.
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