Date: 01 March 1999 21:50
PRESS RELEASE
HOUSE OF COMMONS TO DEBATE COSMIC IMPACT THREAT
A press conference will be held in Room W2 at the House of Commons at 12:00 Wednesday 3rd March. The panel will be Mr. Öpik, Prof. Mark Bailey, Director of the Armagh Observatory, Dr. Monica Grady, Curator of Meteorites at the Natural History Museum and Jonathan Tate, Director of Spaceguard UK.
Commenting in advance of the press conference, Mr. Tate said:
"The scenarios depicted in Deep Impact and Armageddon will happen: it is a statistical certainty. The only question is when. The chance that you will be killed by asteroid impact is twice as high as the chance you'll meet your end in a plane crash."
Prof. Bailey added: "Major cosmic impacts don't occur very often, but when they do they have the potential to kill millions, if not billions of people worse than a global nuclear war".
This is the hazard that is most likely to end civilisation as we know it.
Mr. Tate added: "Those mentioning asteroid impacts struggle to be listened to: the whole subject suffers from a substantial giggle factor. However, it's now technically possible to avoid, or at least mitigate, the effects of impacts. This is why it is so important for the subject to be discussed now."
Lembit Öpik MP will be calling in the debate for a concerted effort by the Government to plan UK involvement in measures to tackle this threat. He will be calling for more funding for those who study the threat, such as Armagh Observatory and Spaceguard UK.
ENDS
Contact:
Jonathan Tate
SPACEGUARD UK
Cygnus Lodge,
High Street, Figheldean,
Wiltshire SP4 8JT
Tel: (Home) 01980 671380
(Work) 01980 675279
(Mobile) 0780 331 9108
(Fax) 01980 671381
E-mail: fr77@dial.pipex.com
See also:
Parliamentary Debate - A Report
Presentation to the Parliamentary Astronomy and Space Environment Group
| Last Revised: 18th May 1999 WWW contact: webmaster@star.arm.ac.uk |
Go to HOME Page  |