By Patrick Appel
A group of scientists is lobbying the UN for an asteroid defense system. Appleyard is a fatalist:
The short-sighted dinosaurs never saw the need. I am tempted to see such impacts as forest fires – violent but necessary. After all, if the one that wiped out the dinosaurs hadn’t happened, the mammals could never have made their move. Come, friendly asteroids, and fall on earth.
Easterbrook would disagree.
The Dish 