by Richard Stenger CNN News
Friday, February 28, 2003 Posted: 1444 GMT
(CNN) -- If scientists detect a killer asteroid shortly before it slams into
Earth, should the public be informed?
One researcher, Geoffrey Sommer of the Rand Corp., a
Santa Monica, California-based think tank, believes the best answer in some
cases is no.
Should an alert come too late to make a difference in the outcome of a
global catastrophe, Sommer suggests governments should remain silent.
"If you can't do anything about a warning, then there is no point in issuing
a warning at all," Sommer said earlier this month at an American
Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Denver.
"If an extinction-type impact is inevitable, then ignorance for the populace
is bliss," he said.
Other space researchers were highly critical of Sommer's views.
"I find Geoffrey's whole idea both irrational and unrealistic," said Benny
Peiser, a U.K. scientist at Liverpool John Moores University who monitors
asteroid threats.
"The advocated secrecy, far from being cost-effective as Geoffrey claims,
would most certainly preclude any attempt at impact mitigation," he told
CNN.com.