The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What's our excuse?
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of being aware of potential threats and the need for vigilance in the face of change.
Neil Degrasse Tyson's quote suggests that, much like the dinosaurs who were oblivious to the asteroid that led to their extinction, humans often fail to recognize impending challenges that could drastically alter our world. It serves as a reminder to remain alert and proactive rather than complacent in our understanding of the future and the inevitable changes it may bring.
In practice
In a speech about climate change, one might quote this to emphasize the need for awareness of looming environmental threats.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
It is good to realize that falling apart is not such a bad thing. Indeed, it is as essential to evolutionary and psychological transformation as the cracking of outgrown shells.
We've taken bold action at home by making historic investments in renewable energy, by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings, and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.
Everything is as it was, I discover when I reach my destination, and everything has changed.
We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations
No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.
No, we are not anti-white. But we don't have time for the white man. The white man is on top already, the white man is the boss already ... He has first-class citizenship already. So you are wasting your time talking to the white man. We are working on our own people.
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