Asteroids and Comets: U.S. and International Law and the Lowest-Probability, Highest Consequence Risk

• Main Authors: Gerrard, Michael B., Barber, Anna W.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarship Archive 1997
• Subjects: National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); near earth object (NEO); environmental review; National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); environmental impact statement (EIS); defense system; New York University Environmental Law Journal; NYU Environmental Law Journal; Environmental Law; International Law; Law; Canada; Tunguska; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/697; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/context/faculty_scholarship/article/1617/viewcontent/6_N.Y.U._Envtl._L.J._4.pdf

Asteroids and comets pose unique policy problems. They are the ultimate example of a low probability, high consequence event: no one in recorded human history is confirmed to have ever died from an asteroid or a comet, but the odds are that at some time in the next several centuries (and conceivably...