Nuclear Holocaust

I would like to know the opinions of my fellow ATS members towards the event of nuclear holocaust and who would be able to survive it?
I would also like to know if there are any survivors, how would we be able to rebuild society or would everything that we know be lost and would we have to start over from scratch?
Also how long would it take to rebuild?



[edit on 23-12-2004 by Killak420]

Heh.Ever played Fallout?Imagine that without the Vaults.

depends, im sure some sort of nuclear bunkers could be built to house some people. also i think i read once that the only thing to survice would be cockroaches on land

Well, depends on how massive it was.

There are likely to be some areas hardly touched, and only slightly affected by the nuclear winter. Think about some remote parts of Africa and South America for example, or some of the polar regions.

Civilized society though, will take a LONG time to rebuild even a fraction of it's former glory...I'd guess it would take many decades to even come close, perhaps even a century.

There are many nations (especially in the Middle East) that have extensive bomb fallout shelters. Surviving the blasts though, is only part of it. The next stage is having enough food and water, etc. to make it through the nuclear winter (as the sun is blocked out for a while). Then there's contending with the OTHER survivors for limited resources (likely to be warfare). Then there's residual fallout to worry about, possible mutations, etc. Another problem is contaminated water, infertile soil, etc. All in all, not a very happy time to be alive, and most would probably prefer the quick death of the initial blasts....

It is estimated a full on nuclear exchange with Russia would result in roughly half the current US population being killed in both the initial blast and then in the year following. Most of these casualties will be in the year following due to injuries, starvation and exposure to the elements.

Nuclear fallout has a very short half life and the idea of a nuclear winter is a myth. After just one year it will be perfectly safe to grow crops at ground zero. Even after just a few weeks it will be safe to remove the top soil and grow crops again. The radioactive fallout from thermonuclear weapons is completely different from say radioactive materials produced by nuclear power plants which have a half life of hundreds or even thousands of years.

As long as you can survive the first month and have basic survival skills you are likely to be a survivor. You may want to look at getting a supply of potassium iodide for you and your family to protect against your thyroid glands absorbing the radioactive form of potassium during the first month. You will also want to have some bikes handy. The electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast will destroy anything electrical.

I think rebulding will be alot faster than most imagine. The biggest targets will be our own nuclear weapons facilities. These will be struck repeatedly as no side will know if their strikes where successful or not. The next targets will be high value targets such as NY, LA, Seattle etc if Russia is able to launch more missiles after the military targets have been struck. The entire exchange is likely to go for roughly 2 weeks. So unless you live within 20 miles of a big city or a military target surviving the initial blast is not really an issue.

If we win the exchange and have weapons remaining we can then threaten any other country and I am sure they will be happy to help feed/rebuild the US or we can move over there. We really should have taken out Russia when we were the only nuclear superpower in the beginning.

If one reads the Bilbe the answer is no one would survive except Jesus is going to return just in time to stop it. A nuke war will happen. But biowar will happen first. 1/3 of the earth will be killed.

Smokers will be more likely to survive, by about 60%, based on labratory tests that tried to give mice cancer after they had been heavy smokers. The most dangerous area to catch an airborne nuclear particle is in the lungs and throat. Smokers can catch them in the lungs and still live, meaning more smokers will survive the fallout and go on to breed children carrying their predispotion to nicotine addiction. The tobacco companies should be pleased about that. If you want to be rich during and after the apocalypse, stock up on cigarettes, booze, and ammo beforehand. Open up a travelling store, SMOKIN' JOES or something. But seriously, surviving is just a mentality. Preparation helps but, history teaches, heroism is priceless.
I thought the bible said jesus was going to come down just in time to see the fireworks, as in, witness(deliver) the destruction of the unworthy and usher everyone else into heaven.

I saw a program that said that Russia had the nuclear capability to destroy the entire planet 10 times over and that they a have a sub that carries 24 ballistic missiles each armed with 16 nuclear warheads designed to lock on to multiple cities and striking each simultaneously. I would like to know if the U.S. has the same ability to counter what the Russians can do to us. I saw this program on the discovery times channel.

Ok, that's another addition to my bunker supplies....

2000 2 litre bottles of water
200 cases of baked beans
200 cases of crackers
200 multipacks of luxury toilet rolls
10000 Marlboro lites

Originally posted by Britguy
Ok, that's another addition to my bunker supplies....

2000 2 litre bottles of water
200 cases of baked beans
200 cases of crackers
200 multipacks of luxury toilet rolls
10000 Marlboro lites

Please provide GPS coord's of your bunker. Thank you for your cooperation..............

I don't think GPS will work after nuclear blast. Not that I thought you were being totally serious, but this concept is relevant to many who will try to bury food stores locatable by GPS. If the satelites don't short out from EMP, they'll probably be blocked from smoke, debris, radiation. Maybe people who are considering burying supplies should use stones or plant a distinctive tree.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
I don't think GPS will work after nuclear blast. Not that I thought you were being totally serious, but this concept is relevant to many who will try to bury food stores locatable by GPS. If the satelites don't short out from EMP, they'll probably be blocked from smoke, debris, radiation. Maybe people who are considering burying supplies should use stones or plant a distinctive tree.

GPS sats are out of range in high orbit...............

The GPS sats may be in high orbit and avoid being fried but our power infrastructures and everyday electronic devices will not escape so lightly.
Central government will likely become totally ineffective, if it survives intact to any degree, so for many it will be a case of fighting to survive.

There again, our governments all have their well stocked and deep bunkers but there wouldn't be much for them to control when they get to leave them. I'd probably be the first to line one of the buggers up in the crosshairs soon as they came out anyway for getting us into the mess in the first place

Originally posted by Britguy
The GPS sats may be in high orbit and avoid being fried but our power infrastructures and everyday electronic devices will not escape so lightly.
Central government will likely become totally ineffective, if it survives intact to any degree, so for many it will be a case of fighting to survive.

There again, our governments all have their well stocked and deep bunkers but there wouldn't be much for them to control when they get to leave them. I'd probably be the first to line one of the buggers up in the crosshairs soon as they came out anyway for getting us into the mess in the first place

Telephone buildings are hardened against EMP in the US and are selfsustaining for a period of time. The handheld devices are more in danger. The congress has the most elaborate bunkers.............

Sats are out of range of what? I presume you mean the EMP from ground blasts, well, maybe yeah, they're outta range. But they're not out of range of the missles shot up there specifically to disable them, which I think is part of the first wave of missles. If we're talking armageddon, the real deal end of the world, fire and brimstone, I think the smoke alone would be bad enough to obscure GPS transmission. Also, in the throes of global upheaval the coordinates might shift and become quickly irrelevant. Imagine if you're looking for the coordinates of india, but it's been subverted by the tectonic plate beside it. What was once india is now china. I think the aboriginal tribes, underappreciated wage slaves, and disenfranchised farm workers of the world should form a single credit union, get enough money together to buy 2 dozen atlas rockets, and position them around the globe. Then, load them up with pebbles and rocks, and give the earth some new rings so the satelites can work for their money dodging speed of sound projectiles. hehe GPS is unreliable, maps are better (though flamable). Get a map and a bloodhound and bury your stocks of food with an open package of dog treats under the ground, above your treasure chest.

Keith Richards will survive. Twinkies and most junk food products will survive. What most call survivalists will pull through.

Lets look on the bright side, what wont survive?;

the IRS, most politicians, the media, hollywood, the elite wealthy, microsoft, wall mart, the internal combustion industry, military industrial complex....

may not be such a bad event after all

you make it sound so utopian toolmaker

Roll on nuclear armageddon

Global Thermonuclear war will result in the release of heat and radiation and the stirring up of dust. This may or may not affect climate. If you are thinking of a nuclear exchange between the US and Russia specifically then, well, specific things happen

www.fas.org...
is a link to a pdf analysis of the effects of nuclear war. I recall reading something like this in the soc.history.what-if group or some other newsgroup a while ago where the local effects were looked at.

Basically, the cities in the US are annihilated, along with soviet cities, european ones, and realistically chinese ones are going to get 'zapped' along with cuban and some other ones. But 'Nuclear Winter' isn't necessarily going to happen. There will be lots of radiation an cancer, and that will be global. Effectively, the third world is going to be 'untouched' and have to make a decision to intervene in places like the US and europe, to control the flood of radiation poisoned refugees and the like.

Originally posted by DrHoracid

GPS sats are out of range in high orbit...............

Not true. GPS sattelites are all in a semi-synchronous orbit, not even as high as most communications sattelites. They are in fact quite vulnerable - so the has several spares ready to launch just in case. Even if the sattelites were to survive, without the USAF constantly maintinging/optimizing the sattelites they would soon become useless.

Not to mention than in the period immediately following a "hostile" environment the GPS signals would not be detectable on earth anyway (due to EMP/RF effects which will die out within a couple of hours)

Dont you guys think it would be much easier to take out all satellites first before launching nuclear attacks?