We Should Take Hollywood Disaster Movies More Seriously

Former intelligence official Richard A. Clarke says that Earth is virtually defenseless against incoming asteroids, and that an asteroid large enough to level a city could strike with almost no warning. "We do not have a plan for dealing with that," Clarke says in Episode 334 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "We don't have a rocket or a missile we can fire up right now, certainly not on 48 hours alert, but not even on six months alert." Clarke explores asteroid impact and other future threats in his recent book Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes. Many of the scenarios he covers have appeared in Hollywood movies, and that can be a problem when it comes to raising awareness about an issue.