Humanity must build technology to ‘destroy large incoming asteroid’, says Richard Dawkins

Evolutionary biology says it is our ‘responsibility’ to ward off such a threat

Richard Dawkins pictured at The Royal Society in London on 16 December, 2015. (Rex Features)

Mankind should develop the technology to spot and destroy large asteroids hurtling towards the Earth, the scientist Richard Dawkins has said.

The evolutionary biologist, best known for his writing on atheism, made the comment on social media in response to a story in The Independent about the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The article had outlined a new study claiming that the dinosaurs would have continued to thrive on our planet for longer if a large asteroid had not struck 66 million years ago.

This contradicts previous suggestions that the large reptiles were already in steep decline prior to this event. 

Using statistical modelling, researchers at the University of Bath and the Natural History Museum in London concluded that the dinosaurs could have remained the “dominant group of land animals on the planet” if the asteroid collision had not been so severe.

Its impact is thought to have caused earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Dawkins predicted that a similar event would take place in the future and that it was humanity’s “responsibility” to protect itself against such a threat.

“An impact as catastrophic as this will happen again. We don’t know when. Using existing science, we could develop the technology to detect, intercept, & divert or destroy a large incoming asteroid,” he said.

“No other species could do it. It’s our responsibility,” Mr Dawkins added.

His remarks come less than a week after a low-flying asteroid, roughly six metres in diameter, missed the Earth by only 240 miles. 

An asteroid would have to be 25 meters in size to cause local damage or more than one kilometre large to have worldwide effects, according to Nasa.