BECAUSE THE IMPACT OF ASTEROIDS IS SO GREAT, THE LOW PROBABILITY DOESNʼT MATTER. Gregg Easterbrook Fellow @ Brookings Institute, ʻ08] The Sky Is Falling Atlantic Magazine, June 2008 http://bit.ly/aZ0L2z Even if space strikes are likely only once every million years, that doesnʼt mean a million years will pass before the next impact—the sky could suddenly darken tomorrow. Equally important, improbable but cataclysmic dangers ought to command attention because of their scope. A tornado is far more likely than an asteroid strike, but humanity is sure to survive the former. The chances that anyone person will die in an airline crash are minute, but this does not prevent us from caring about aviation safety. And as Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer of Microsoft, put it, The odds of a space-object strike during your lifetime maybe no more than the odds you will die in a plane crash—but with space rocks, its like the entire human race is riding on the plane
10NFL1-Nuclear Weapons Page 183 of 199 www.victorybriefs.com
