So if we can't get action to head off disaster now, what would it take?
United Nations officials reacted cautiously, saying that as in the past, Mr. Hussein might be trying to head off disaster, not signal new cooperation.
Here are four ways to head off disaster before it strikes.
Like canaries in a mine shaft, consumers can sometimes head off disaster before it happens.
Richard Somerville, a member of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, said the steps taken to reduce carbon emissions to date are "entirely insufficient" to head off disaster.
If the scientific consensus holds, and we aggressively marshal our financial resources and technological brilliance to confront the challenge, we will be able to, for a relatively small investment, head off potential disaster and make for a better world.
Aggressive rate cuts in 1998 by the Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, headed off disaster and set up the market for a historic run.
During that time, Con Ed gives customers who are in arrears a chance to work out a payment plan, which, more often than not, heads off disaster.
But Reagan did at least manage to keep control of the message and head off the expected disaster at the polls.Mr Obama, by contrast, is struggling.
Yet calls to head off future disasters by establishing a UN body to provide a global drought early warning system, first made almost a decade ago, remain unfulfilled.
