The Man Who Saved the World From Mass Extinction

The day the Mesozoic ended is a significant event in Earth's history that many of us may recognize. An asteroid approximately 10 km in diameter struck the Earth at a speed of 20 km per second that day, wiping out the dinosaurs from its face, about 66 million years ago. That asteroid impact is one of the five mass extinctions to have befallen planet Earth, in its 4.6 billion years of existence. Out of the five, the Permian extinction was the most destructive. Approximately 250 million years ago, it came close to becoming a total apocalypse, obliterating 95% of marine and 70% of terrestrial life, respectively. Yet the terrifying force of nature that Earth witnessed pales in comparison to what humanity almost unleashed one September night in 1983. But for one man, the Earth would have witnessed its sixth mass extinction, and the most destructive one. Had it not been for his prudence, our Earth would have been annihilated by nuclear bombs 37 years ago.

In a dim bunker deep beneath Moscow, five crimson alarms detonated in sequence. Machines screamed: U.S. NUCLEAR MISSILES INBOUND. Computers flashed validation of the launch of ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. The fate of the world rested on the judgement of one man - Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov. Notwithstanding the five emergency alarms that blew off one after the other and despite computer validations, the Lieutenant Colonel felt something was amiss. Five missiles? Too few for a first strike. A lifetime of training screamed obey the system. It was Mr. Petrov’s call to tell his leadership to launch a counter-attack. His one go-ahead meant pressing the buttons of the nuclear weapons.

He felt the clock ticking down on him. His colleagues urged him to retaliate. In those agonizing moments, with only seconds to decide, the destiny of billions of lives—your life, my life—hung in balance against a human's natural impulse to retaliate. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov chose not to issue the order to press the nuclear buttons. He listened to his instinct over a machine’s cold logic.

The alarms later turned out to be false. Stanislav Petrov is the man who, quite literally, saved the world. He later reflected that not giving the nod for a counter-attack might have killed millions of people, but giving the nod would have guaranteed the end of everything. Forests, cities, children’s laughter, oceans teeming with life—all would have been reduced to radioactive ash in a nuclear winter lasting for millennia. One man stepped back and stood between life and lifelessness. We walk this Earth, breathe its air, and dream beneath the sun because Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov chose doubt over certainty and humanity over protocol. We owe Him existence.