
The Underfunded, Disorganized Plan to Save Earth from the Next Giant Asteroid - fraqed
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-underfunded-disorganized-plan-to-save-earth-from-the-next-giant-asteroid
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arbuge
In a sense, it's an example of the tragedy of the commons at a national level:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons)

No one nation feels it should bear the burden of doing this alone, and so none
is especially motivated to do so.

To be clear, even if all nations were united under a single government, that
government would likely feel little motivation too, owing to the perceived low
probability of an asteroid event in any given political time period.

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nmrm2
I think the low probability explanation is more plausible than the commons
explanation.

Scientific funding for non-classified projects -- which constitutes most
funding -- is partially a contribution to the commons. The development of
human capital on the home front is a unique benefit to the funding country,
but the results get disseminated and -- in principle -- there's nothing
stopping a company in another country from commercializing first.

Also, I agree the politics of asteroids are really inractable. Lots of people
think of asteroids as a plot device for egg-head sci-fi fans rather than an
actual existential threat.

(FTR, I think that, in general, we should be doing a better job as a species
at buying insurance policies to protect ourselves against extinction-level
events.)

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seanp2k2
In my dying breath though, I would laugh that because everyone was so busy
chasing the next Big Shiny, we lost sight of the big shiny which would lead to
our [premature but inevitable] extinction.

