🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <55tqh1$56k@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu>, Karen M Cramer
<kmc_mst6@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> writes
>MH Roberts (u5k24@cc.keele.ac.uk) wrote:
>: Neil O'Hara wrote:
>: > The object that struck earth and killed the dinosaurs was more likely a
>: > comet, but could have been a meteor,...
>
>: I studied geology last year at college, and an I didn't realise until
>: then that most geologists refutre the claim that a projectile from outer
>: space killed off the dinosaurs.  This is mainly because Palaeontological
>: evidence suggests that the dinosaurs were extinct by and large before
>: the event occurred.. and the theory was proposed by a physicist who had
>: little knowledge of geology..
>
>His son who co-authored the paper was a geologist I believe.
>
>If it was not a projectile from outer space what was it?
>
>Karen
>
>: Cheers,
>: Mel.
>: -- 
>: Melfyn Roberts                  |  "Time's fun when you're
>: Email: u5k24@cc.keele.ac.uk     |   having flies!"
>: URL: http://www.wp.com/mroberts |  - Kermit the Frog.

The overwhelming consensus is that a large object - comet or asteroid -
did hit the Earth , at Chicxulub, 65 million years ago; that this event
was not unique, and that simple calculations of kinetic energy show that
the effects would have extinguished large numbers of species, even if
some dinosaurs were on their way out at the time. It is even less
disputable that, were we to experience the same event now, you could
kiss goodbye to the human race unless a biologically significant
proportion of us are "absent on leave" when it happens. In plain
language, we must have built a Kardashev type 2 civilization before
impact day, whose date we do not know,; moreover, we can expect only 1-2
years' warning at the present time. All the accountants, bureaucrats,
and environmentalists in the world have no answer to these basic and
easily comprehensible facts, and so the space community has an over-
riding duty to press for as much investment in Space development as they
can screw out of myopic governments, investors, and administrators! 
        To those who say that human extinction is a good thing and
should not be prevented , one can only say that the Game of Life is
based on the premise that each player plays to win; all else is suicide,
and, it is agreed by all religions of any standing, the one wholly
unforgiveable sin. More fundamentally, the decision that humanity is
unworthy of survival and growth is not ours to take
 Michael Martin-Smith
-- 
Michael Martin-Smith