Understanding global security - Peter Hough

NATURAL THREATS TO SECURITY
Humanitarian Affairs and a policy-making body, the Inter-Agency Task Force on
Disaster Reduction (IATF/DR), chaired by the same person.
The ISDR declare that their overriding aim is: ‘To enable all societies to become
resilient to the effects of natural hazards and related technological and environmental
disasters, in order to reduce human, economic and social losses’ (ISDR 2002a: 1).
This aim is to be achieved in four ways: (1) stimulating public awareness,
(2) obtaining the commitment of public authorities, (3) promoting interdisciplinary
cooperation and (4) fostering greater scientific knowledge (ISDR 2002a: 2).
The ISDR has incorporated more horizontal, mitigation-based approaches in
its overall strategy than was the case with its predecessor. ‘Vulnerability to disasters
should be considered in a broad context encompassing specific human, social/
cultural, economic, environmental and political dimensions, that relate to inequalities,
gender relations and ethical and racial divisions’ (ISDR 2002b: 21).
Political initiatives for protecting the earth against
extra-terrestrial collisions
Surveillance of the night sky for early detection of NEOs has increased since the
launch of the ‘Spaceguard’ initiative by NASA in the early 1990s and its subsequent
linking up with other national schemes. What could be done if an NEO was set for
collision with the earth remains to be established, however. Military solutions have
figured prominently in discussions. The possibility of deflecting or destroying
an NEO by nuclear strike has been aired regularly, particularly in the USA, the state
most likely to be able to attempt such an action. Other, non-military suggestions
for defending the earth from such collisions are more surreal still. Lempit Opik, the
leading spokesman in the UK parliament on this topic (see Box 8.1), has proposed:
‘You could have a big plastic condom or space sheath to collect near-Earth objects
and tow them to safety’ (Brown and Goodchild 2000).
Box 8.1 Lembit Opik
In the UK no one has done more to highlight the need to act to avert the potential
disaster of an asteroid or comet colliding with the earth than the colourful Member of
Parliament (MP) Lembit Opik. Opik is an unusual British politician in many ways.
Despite being born and bred in Northern Ireland he bypassed sectarian politics
in becoming a maverick Liberal Democrat MP with a seat in rural Wales, while
maintaining a role in the peace process going on in his homeland. His family
background would certainly appear to have influenced him politically. The Opiks
emigrated to Northern Ireland from Estonia to flee brutal Soviet persecution, making
a commitment to Liberalism easy to understand. More particularly, Opik’s grandfather
was an astronomer who, on taking up a post at Armagh University after migrating,
became active in research on asteroids and the potential dangers they posed to
humanity.
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