International Push On Asteroid Threat

A recent international gathering in Mexico City urged national governments to take the threat of asteroid impacts more seriously. The report from the conference called on the United Nations to develop a program to find dangerous objects in time to deflect them, and to develop a decision making mechanism to deal with any problem that might come up.

By calling for international cooperation in meeting this potential threat, the conference seems to have taken some of the burden off NASA to address the threat on its own. That would be good news all around. A shared danger should fairly and rationally create a shared burden.