The International Space Development Conference is just finishing up in Los Angeles. One of the presentations was from former astronaut, Russell Schweickart, now chairman of the B612 Foundation (http://www.b612foundation.org/index.html).

A quote from that presentation is below as well as a link to the presentation in .doc format.

Our choice is to face this infrequent but substantial cosmic test… or pass into history, not as an incapable species like the dinosaurs, but as a fractious and self serving creature with inadequate vision and commitment to continue its evolutionary development.

I wish I could know people who thought like this. My life choices or where I live and work seems to have taken in me in a different direction where finding individuals who think about similar things are extremely rare. Anyway, I thought to post this here since at least many of the vocal people in this forum seem to have a mind to think outside their own needs and desires even if we don't agree on the details.

Full Text (http://www.b612foundation.org/papers/ISDC06.doc)

I'm amazed at what we've been able to do with detection on only 4 million a year.

This issue does need to be one of our foremost priorities. Technology developed for this cannot but help to prove useful in other areas of space exploration and eventual colonization. While we may not be able to stop all of the threats our existance on Earth faces, this is one that is doable, right now.

If nothing else, though extremely expensive at the moment, it seems to me that given our relative success with the Hayabusa and Deep Impact missions, it is not beyond the realm of our capabilities to physically get a motivating aparatus (such as a small ion engine) to a large NEO and thusly propel it into a non-hazardous trajectory (such as on a collision course with Sol, perhaps).

Its something we ought be spending significant resources on.

I think, like with so many other things, unless it becomes an imminent problem, nobody with the money to be able to do anything about it will do anything about it. Then, of course, its too late.