A couple things:

1) It is very likely that given enough time, we could make the asteroid completely miss Earth.

2) Honestly, most of the world won't get a say. It will be decided by the US, China, Russia, India, and anyone else who can actually get to the Asteroid.

Recently heard that asteriods could be deflected with light given the proper amount of time...big ass ship lasers...yeah..!!!

Or paintballs....
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/deflect-asteroids-earth-deploy-paintballs

Which is the same principle...

@krellin

You don't need lasers, the paint acts as sails for solar wind, if you will.

Sorry abge -- I was cross-threading with the laser comment...

Oh, I see what you did there.

I'm confused, who's using steroids?

The Asteroids. That's why James Cameron has to fly into space and revoke their metals.

I'm confused about the paint plan. I've not done any maths but all my instincts are saying that simply flying the spacecraft into the side of the asteroid will divert its course a lot more than light particles hitting a line of paint. Also there seems to be a hell of a lot that can go wrong with the paint plan.

We're also sort of counting on none of the asteroids being black. If they're black we're not going to see them until they're too damned close for paint or playing billiards to do any good. For the dark ones we need orbital nuclear weapons to blast the hell out of them and hope the remnants are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere.

Now that would take a lot of geopolitical will!

We can just sendf the Expendables up. Arnie, Bruno, Sly, Jason, Chuck, and crew will move it. Hell, Chuck Norris will just growl at it and it will run away in fear.

7 words for you:

Chuck Norris as giant floating head Jor-el.

Classic webDip forums...

@Oct -- if you read the fine print...the light particles require 20 years to have the necessary affect. It's not one of those "Oh shit! there's an asteroid gonna kill us next week..." plans. It's more like this scenario...

"Hey bob...there an asteroid drifting about Saturn headed this way. We'll be retired by then....hey, give me one of those smokes....Oh...anyway...<cough cough...damned emphysema....> So what do you want to do about this asteroid?"

"You know those fuckers didn't give me raise? How about you?"

"No...but stay on topic Bob. Asteroid...doomsday...all that shit. They'll need a plan?"

"Plan? <cough cough...nothin' like smokin' a good red man in the lab...Pisses of that sex-retary, you know?> Plan, huh? We should probably quit these things, you know? <cough cough..> Anyway, I'll give those fuckers a plan. 50,000 tons of paintballs, We'll tell 'em the sun will push it away if you paint it white. Those assholes will believe anything...after all, they pay us (barely, motherfuckers...) to come up with these brilliant ideas. I'll laugh my ass off if they but this...wanna make a bet?"

"Paintballs? Haaa ha ha! that's golden, man. You write that up, I'll order the pizza. $2 says they don't buy it."

"You're on..."

Octavious, why are you racist against black asteroids?

Instead of crashing a ship into the asteroid, perhapsbwe mount high power rockets to the side and let them burn max.power for minutes on end. If several of them can lift a massive payload, imagine what several dozen could do. Of course, the right composition and some well engineered drilling could produce a continuous stream of liquified or gaseous matter that also redirected it.