The news that a meteorite exploded over Russia in February has captured the attention of U.S. lawmakers on the House Science Committee, which has scheduled a hearing on the subject for March 19.

Rep. Rohrabacher (R-CA) is among the most interested parties, according to a story that ran in The Hill. And while he expresses great interest in NASA’s role keeping Near Earth Objects at bay, it is distressing to know that he doesn’t trust the same agency’s take on the need to protect the planet from human activities.

If anyone can come up with a plan regarding what we might do to prevent or decrease future run-ins with meteors, it will be NASA.

Shouldn’t we also trust NASA when they warn that:

The planet is warming. The reason it’s warming is because we are pumping increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

NASA’s analysis of Earth’s surface temperature found that 2012 ranked as the ninth-warmest year since 1880. NASA scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) compare the average global temperature each year to the average from 1951 to 1980. This 30-year period provides a baseline from which to measure the warming Earth has experienced due to increasing atmospheric levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. While 2012 was the ninth-warmest year on record, all 10 of the warmest years in the GISS analysis have occurred since 1998, continuing a trend of temperatures well above the mid-20th century average.  (NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio)