EARTH CHANGES

New calls for planetary defense

A four-day discussion was kicked off by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the US House Science Committee's Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee with his noting that it took the attacks of Sept. 11 for the world to focus on global terrorism.
"I hope that it won’t take that type of catastrophe for us to start paying attention to the threats of near-Earth objects," he said. Rohrabacher said the political reaction to the worries over space rocks has garnered "a very tepid response" to date, noting that money spent so far on the issue has been "a pittance".