E.P. wrote:

It would probably cost several billions, that is to say 1,000's of 1,000,000's, to build a lunar observatory. But for the last 5,000 years, about every 1,000 years or so a small asteroid or comet has hit the Earth and destroyed most of a continent. The value of a continent, which is to say its cost, assuming you could buy one, is 1,000,000's of 1,000,000's.

If we only have 5 continents now, how many were there 5,000 years ago?

What will we do in 5,000 more years when they are all gone?

How could one man be so right and the rest of the world so wrong?

Rest easy McFly, EP has miscalculated by several orders of magnitude. There IS a danger from impacts, but the solution is not to build a tin umbrella to shelter under, but instead to diversify away from the Earth.

EP does not agree with this, but it's a free world...