Simply a great article by Britt.

The only way short of another impact to get the attention of elected representatives will be to demonstrate in a conclusive manner the reality of earlier impact events.

To put things further in perspective, we have been getting hit by small impacts (say 16,000 times the force of the World Trade Center attack) once every 100 years, and what is even more disturbing, by larger impacts (say 600,000 times the force of the World Trade Center attacks) every 1,000 years or so. 6,000 were killed in the World Trade Center attacks, while a small impact on any urban area will kill (and that's "will", as we know with a certainty that one will hit sometime) several 1,000,000's, while the larger one will (again that's "will") kill 1,000,000,000's.

We can do something about this. If we could simply get people evacuated from the impact area we could save nearly all of them. But that will require calculating where the next significant impact will occur.

We need to spend more on staff, on computers, and on telescopes. The ammounts needed are very small by any standard. It is time to try to save those lives, it is the time to ask people to spend that money.

EP

The only way, short of another impact, to get the attention of elected officials is going to be to demonstrate in a pretty firm way earlier impact events.