In disaster terms we are talking about the low probability, high consequence type of event that is perhaps never seen in one's own lifetime. Yet, of late they seem to be popping up on a regular basis. Haiti, Chile, Gulf Oil Spill, Japan are events that are only 14 months old.
See Japan's ‘black swan': Scientists ponder the unparalleled dangers of unlikely disasters The article properly notes that there are events still waiting to happen that have occurred in the past--but people and governments live as though they don't even exist. I believe it goes back to how people measure time. Basically I think it is their lifetime. If they or their parents have not experienced an event, it is like it won't ever happen. Intellectually they may acknowledge that something could happen, but that knowledge won't prompt them to action.
One quote from the article above is, "I think many of our systems do not operate as if things could go wrong, Hunter said. "They operate as if everything will go right." aka, Gulf Oil Spill. Safety was a given, but not really paid attention to--based on their personal experience and other pressures to perform.
Which brings me to asteroids. In the past I've always discounted them as a hazard. What can we do about it? It is what it is, etc. But of late I've begun to think about the recent past, that even in the event of a nuclear war life remains and their will be survivors. As emergency managers we should not take any event off the table. We need to ratchet up our thinking to catastrophes so large we can't even imagine them. It takes prevention off the table and puts resiliency at the heart of what we should be working towards.
