Note: I also think the public's LHC worries were unfounded.
One way that the LHC collisions differ from cosmic ray impacts is that the center of mass velocity is much lower. If high energy collisions created small black holes, cosmic rays could make ones that simply zip past at escape velocity (because (lots+0)/2 is still lots) while the LHC ones are captured (because (lots+-lots)/2 can be tiny).
One way that the LHC collisions differ from cosmic ray impacts is that the center of mass velocity is much lower. If high energy collisions created small black holes, cosmic rays could make ones that simply zip past at escape velocity (because (lots+0)/2 is still lots) while the LHC ones are captured (because (lots+-lots)/2 can be tiny).