But I had been following the theories of Alvarez et. al. from 1980 and I fully accepted that the KT Boundary must be the remnant of a major impact event associated with the dinosaurs' global mass extinction. I reasoned at the time that the actual crater need not even be found to jump start the human race to action. I reasoned wrong.
It would be ~2013 before the available evidence was generally accepted.
Since ~1985 when the KT boundary's full implications have been known, I have felt that the whole human race has had one single job, to leverage our 'space race' and weapons technology to deliver a credible planetary defense from asteroids and comets. Soon, already. To launch on short notice from the Moon as an armada of kinetic impactor rockets with a mass-payload of lunar dust to deflect and divert the imminent impact of an object with the greatest level of assurance possible. By definition, one off the plane of the ecliptic that we found only yesterday that would hit next month. As you can imagine, I have little patience for wasteful discussions about 'deploying solar sails on an object'.
This should have pre-empted the Cold War. It (with hindsight) should have been the focus of the space race from day one with all countries participating. Getting lead out of gasoline and keeping CFCs and bromides away from the ozone layer was nice, but when I see the global resources that have been devoted to 'climate' and the abuse of statistics applied to existential threats (as in it's so 'unlikely' so we have no need to plan for it with any urgency)... and exploration of Mars over bases and planetary defense on the Moon, it makes my blood boil. As a parent.
A recent letter to Goldfein ( https://archive.org/download/20180227-david-l.-goldfein-lett... ) was just the latest in a series. Knowledge of KT impact has affected and colored my thinking as an adult to a much greater extent than fear of nuclear war ever did.