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AP-NORC poll: Asteroid watch more urgent than Mars trip
Americans prefer a space program that focuses on potential asteroid impacts, scientific research and using robots to explore the cosmos over sending humans back to the moon or on to Mars, a poll shows.
The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, released Thursday, one month before the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, lists asteroid and comet monitoring as the No. 1 desired objective for the U.S. space program. About two-thirds of Americans call that very or extremely important, and about a combined 9 in 10 say it's at least moderately important.
The poll comes as the White House pushes to get astronauts back on the moon, but only about a quarter of Americans said moon or Mars exploration by astronauts should be among the space program's highest priorities. About another third called each of those moderately important.
"More than 80% say the United States is not leading the world in space exploration."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @05:50AM (6 children)
As if anyone knows the extinction rate from before 100 years ago... I looked into one of those papers once and came away very unimpressed: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=8090&cid=200461#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
You're buying into a lot of BS from known fearmongerers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 24 2019, @06:20AM (5 children)
Fair enough - I've often objected that climate researchers and others make presumptions which they can't verify.
Even so, a species that can only be found in one place on earth, disappears after extensive mining operations in the area. Or another disappears after clear cut logging. And, yet another can't be found after years of raw sewerage being dumped into the water. I feel a loss, each and every time I read of something like that. And, yet, slash and burn farming continues in the Amazon. Poison continues to be dumped into the Congo river. Our own "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico hasn't gone away. Or, imported rats devastate a local animal population on some remote island, or Australia or NZ. And, back to those American chestnut trees. They're all but gone, with only a few small populations in far northern regions left.
I've come to dislike the word "diversity" because it is so over used in strange contexts - but I seriously believe that diversity is important to the health of this world. There isn't a single organism that can fill niches all around the world, unless it is humans, roaches, and rats.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday June 24 2019, @09:42AM (3 children)
> Even so, a species that can only be found in one place on earth, disappears after extensive mining operations in the area.
I would be interested to know what is the rate at which new species arise? I never saw that, only stuff about the rate at which old species are dying.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 24 2019, @11:08AM (2 children)
If you ignore microbiota, the rate is zero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @03:13PM (1 child)
So you're a Bible nut believing in devolution this whole time?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 24 2019, @11:41PM
Evolution happens all the time. However, new species of polycellular organisms take longer to evolve than the capacity of humans to extinguish existing ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday June 24 2019, @05:12PM
On very flaky mobile, so I'll keep it short: te decline of insects is terrifying. Yet farmers continue massive, indiscriminate use of pesticides.
We don't need to reduce human population by 75%. More like 90%. We also need to end the current uncontrolled experiment in dysgenics, where the most successful individuals have the fewest children.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.