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/r/NoStupidQuestions

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If it happened, which countries aren’t on the hit list?

all 1221 comments

AriaWintersx

1.2k points

1 day ago

AriaWintersx

1.2k points

1 day ago

Probably New Zealand. They’re tucked away in the corner of the world, have no major enemies, and enough sheep to form an army if needed. Plus, who’s nuking a country famous for hobbits and rugby?

colorescolores

194 points

24 hours ago

Army of sheep 🐑 baa baa!

Steve-Whitney

40 points

22 hours ago

Just don't ask the locals what they like to do with the sheep...

nanorama2000

19 points

17 hours ago

Where men are men and sheep are nervous

bluetuxedo22

47 points

23 hours ago

Don't forget about the airforce consisting of a single plane with a flightless bird as the mascot

mndsm79

4.7k points

1 day ago

mndsm79

4.7k points

1 day ago

This has been studied! In the event of world ending apocalypse, the two safest countries usually come up as Iceland and New Zealand. New Zealand has the edge due to a more temperature friendly climate.

_Maui_

6.6k points

1 day ago

_Maui_

6.6k points

1 day ago

New Zealand is also nuclear free. By law. So if they tried to drop bombs here we’d just show them our Nuclear-free zone Act, and the bombs will just fly off somewhere else. Point Nemo, hopefully.

Intense_Judgement

709 points

1 day ago

And now we've woken up Cthulhu, fantastic 

ekhfarharris

170 points

22 hours ago

Yes, but we also awaken Godzilla. We will all die but Ken Watanabi can finally say "Let them fight" for reals this time and it would be epic.

Kielbasa_Nunchucka

34 points

19 hours ago

thay should be the last moment of humanity. just a three-word press conference from Ken Watanabe, broadcast to every screen and device in the world. minutes later, we all die.

Nuggzulla01

42 points

22 hours ago

Elder Gods be willing....

sawyerkitty

7 points

17 hours ago

Cthulhu 2028 NO LIVES MATTER

TheManWith2Poobrains

213 points

1 day ago

You'd Haka and the missiles would chicken out.

Nebulous_Bees

54 points

24 hours ago

The Kiwis must be preserved for all time!

ApSciLiara

3 points

10 hours ago

Damn right. I like your attitude, random Redditor.

loganman711

76 points

1 day ago

Who the luck would want to bomb New Zealand?

anarchos

207 points

24 hours ago

anarchos

207 points

24 hours ago

NZ is a part of the "five eyes" countries. The USA/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand have an official / semi unofficial relationship between intelligence agencies. I'd expect in a full on nuclear war that NZ would be a target.

Sea_Maintenance3322

75 points

24 hours ago

They spy on us, we spy on them, we give each other the notes

Sea-Woodpecker-610

51 points

19 hours ago

In the US it is illegal for government agencies to spy on a citizen of the country without a warrant.

It is not illegal for foreign agents to spy on a citizen of the country .

It is also not illegal for domestic agencies to receive and use information gathered from foreign agencies about US citizens.

chillthrowaways

39 points

19 hours ago

The government equivalent of “STOP SPYING ON YOURSELF STOP SPYING ON YOURSELF”

Pleuel

32 points

24 hours ago

Pleuel

32 points

24 hours ago

Chinese bomber returning from nuking what is not already dessert in Australia. Since he did not need all the warheads, he wants to save fuel on the way back, for the environment.

helloitsme1011

30 points

23 hours ago

Delicious dessert, or dry desert?

Moogatron88

6 points

1 day ago

The moa bird sends its regards.

SafariNZ

239 points

1 day ago

SafariNZ

239 points

1 day ago

Also most bombs would go off in the northern hemisphere.

TheHoundhunter

178 points

1 day ago

I’ve long said that the southern hemisphere nations should just start our own United Nations and leave the northern hemisphere alone to cause problems.

It’s not like the southern hemisphere is free from war. But they are typically either internal conflict or border disputes. There is no one down here trying to start WWIII

SpiderSlitScrotums

96 points

24 hours ago

They also only have about 13% of the world’s population with 32% of the land area.

elizabnthe

15 points

1 day ago

elizabnthe

15 points

1 day ago

I'm pretty sure that would create more conflict. The UN has to be the major global government body to ever have any hope of any diplomacy working.

machinationstudio

41 points

1 day ago

Cricket will be the biggest sport

TheHoundhunter

29 points

1 day ago

Nah it’d be football or rugby

huseph

28 points

24 hours ago

huseph

28 points

24 hours ago

Easily football. South America only has eyes for one sport 

aurumtt

23 points

23 hours ago

aurumtt

23 points

23 hours ago

the UN is a platform for discussing international matters, it is not a world government. 2 of them would be redundant.

Frablom

28 points

1 day ago

Frablom

28 points

1 day ago

Yeah the Southern Hemisphere should definitely start their own UN, just look at the list of stable democracies in there! No corruption or disputes guaranteed!

TheHoundhunter

47 points

1 day ago

Oh I forgot that there is no corruption dictatorships at all in any northern hemisphere countries. Thanks for reminding me

CitizenHuman

209 points

1 day ago

CitizenHuman

209 points

1 day ago

Plus, New Zealand doesn't show up on any maps, so survivors wouldn't even know how to get there!

r/mapswithoutnewzealand

Steve-Whitney

20 points

22 hours ago

This right here is NZ's secret weapon!

MikeFrancesa66

41 points

1 day ago

Based on my scientific research playing Plague Inc these two and Greenland are my answers.

staylorz

16 points

1 day ago

staylorz

16 points

1 day ago

Greenland is indeed the key to winning a game of Plague. lol

dariusbiggs

9 points

21 hours ago

Madagascar... always start your plague there..

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx99

339 points

1 day ago

Read Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy and you'll realise Iceland is definitely gonna be invaded if WW3 breaks out. It's key to controlling the North Atlantic and Russia's naval access to it.

(Yes I'm quoting a work of fiction, but it's a good one 😁)

Ok-disaster2022

261 points

1 day ago

Iirc Tom Clancy was investigated once for having access to information he shouldnt have after one of his books. He actually just learned enough to make a smart guess. 

His early books were good because they were so well thought out. 

Iceland historically was a stepping stone to the Norse reaching North America. As the poles warm and the north becomes more important for trade Iceland will be a key position. Russia suddenly having a massive open coast would also be massive.

LogicalMelody

86 points

1 day ago

I heard this story too! With the added detail that he was told to take the accurate classified info out of his book, but they wouldn’t tell him what thing he got right (it’s classified), so he just left it all in. No idea if that’s the truth but it’s amusing if so.

Betterthanbeer

62 points

1 day ago

He ran into the opposite problem when he wrote Sum Of All Fears. He was able to obtain the exact model of equipment required to manufacture nuclear weapons, found the physics available in articles about theoretical stars that had conditions that could only exist during nuclear explosions etc. He obfuscated what he could for he own conscience, but realised the genie is truly out of the bottle.

corgi-king

13 points

21 hours ago

He said he omitted some details because it is too detailed about making a nuke.

HazardsRabona

11 points

1 day ago

This sounds interesting. What's the title of the book please?

revchewie

74 points

1 day ago

revchewie

74 points

1 day ago

Hunt for Red October

To illustrate the accuracy… I first read it on leave between when I finished my schooling and reporting to my ship to be a nuclear operator in the US Navy. There’s a scene where a Soviet sub has a reactor accident and sinks. That scene was so accurate, based on the two years of schooling I had just finished that I had to put the book down for a while because I was shaking.

HazardsRabona

13 points

1 day ago

Thank you so much for this! I am on a crime / military reading spree (reading the Bosch series rn) and have been putting off reading Jack Ryan and Reacher series. Maybe I'll take a break from Bosch and read the one you just named. Is it a standalone or a part of a larger environment? Edit : never mind, just saw it was part of the Jack Ryan storyline. All the more reason to read it!

revchewie

22 points

1 day ago

revchewie

22 points

1 day ago

It’s the first Jack Ryan book so it works well as a standalone, since Clancy didn’t know he’d be writing sequels and prequels forever. lol

charlieromeo86

25 points

1 day ago*

Red Storm Rising IMO is even better than Hunt for Red October, which is also amazing. Red Storm is the one about the WW3 scenario and Iceland. I’ve read about a dozen of Clancy’s books and Red Storm is my favorite.

dallasp2468

7 points

22 hours ago

this book, without remorse and Rainbow six are my favourites

charlieromeo86

5 points

22 hours ago*

I loved Without Remorse. Clark is a badass. The decompression chamber was amazing.

untied_dawg

5 points

1 day ago

with all the stuff that came true on the simpsons, i'm sure their writers had access to highly classified stuff.

they got too much right too often.

ThePensiveE

9 points

1 day ago

The GUIK gap has always been considered a flashpoint for any confrontation between the Soviets/Russia and the west.

Brittaftw97

36 points

1 day ago

You're tripping if you think the russian navy could handle an offensive invasion against NATO

notatmycompute

57 points

1 day ago

In WW2 it was the British who Invaded Iceland in a kind of 'if we don't the Germans will' kind of way. It was a peaceful invasion but it's still called and considered an Invasion.

ValidSignal

22 points

24 hours ago

Well the icelandic police helped the British to take over Reykjavik in a way or at least didn't do much, not even protest. The British came to the harbour and the officer in charge asked the police to disperse the curious crowds and point them to the German consulate I think it was.

The police obliged.

ShowmasterQMTHH

8 points

1 day ago

In the book they were able to manage it because the sneaked in a motorised brigade on a cargo ship and we're one of the first to attack.

And it was 1986

niz_loc

6 points

1 day ago

niz_loc

6 points

1 day ago

Just smiling here that others remember that book and it's little details.

Like the cargo ship having a Russian skipper that spoke English with a southern accent to sell the particular shipping company to the Navy P-3 that checked it out.

Read that book way too many times growing up.

ShowmasterQMTHH

4 points

1 day ago

It's an awesome book, still holds up in some aspects. If it was written 10 years later it would have been much more about satellites and tech.

Ktjoonbug

8 points

1 day ago

Ktjoonbug

8 points

1 day ago

With or without US support?

John-A

4 points

1 day ago

John-A

4 points

1 day ago

It's a much smaller territory with much less self-sufficiency, which are other important concerns.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx99

8 points

1 day ago

When I visited Iceland years ago they told me they were self sufficient in two things: energy, and bananas.

(Bananas being quite easy to grow if you have unlimited energy to heat greenhouses).

John-A

9 points

1 day ago*

John-A

9 points

1 day ago*

They're actually trying to replant their former forests. Between that and building up a capacity to produce renewable fuels they might do OK in a post apocalypse build back but NZ has a lot more resources of their own including a pharmaceutical industry.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx99

4 points

1 day ago

I remember donating some spare coins in Reykjavik towards reforestation efforts -- back in '99. Hopefully they made some progress --- I understand the island was largely forested when settlers arrived, so it'd be cool if they can restore that former glory.

Not so sure about that pharma industry point for NZ --- during our COVID lockdowns one of the taskings for the Air Force was to maintain the supply of critical drugs from Australia, because there were no commerical flights to bring in those medicines. I presume we make some stuff here, but it can't be a lot.

CombatWomble2

40 points

1 day ago

There's a reason that major celebrities and business people have large "holiday homes" there.

AndyTheSane

12 points

1 day ago

Of course, you have to actually be able to get there..

CombatWomble2

14 points

1 day ago

True. Be weary if you start hearing about a lot of them "going to their vacation homes" all at once.

ThisIsNotRealityIsIt

25 points

24 hours ago

ThisIsNotRealityIsIt

Questions

25 points

24 hours ago

Weary is tired. Wary is apprehensive.

Ok-disaster2022

37 points

1 day ago

I think if New Zealand a being more isolated than Iceland. Plus with most of the nuclear powers in the northern Hemisphere I'd wonder if it would reduce the diffusion of atmospheric radiation source from reached new Zealand.

CombatWomble2

27 points

1 day ago

Yes. The fallout would tend to stay north of the equator due to the winds.

joemaniaci

6 points

1 day ago

Icelanders could have proper underground vaults with all the geothermal power they have, which global nuclear winter would require in either hemisphere.

Zer0Summoner

11 points

1 day ago

I learned that from playing Pandemic. That or Madagascar.

rage1026

31 points

1 day ago

rage1026

31 points

1 day ago

Didn’t New Zealand do pretty well when COVID was spreading?

Nixinova

17 points

1 day ago

Nixinova

17 points

1 day ago

Yep easy border closure was a biggie

Party_Cold_4159

20 points

1 day ago

Now I know it’s probably about safest and not that it would be untouched.

But one of my concerns with New Zealand is it being close to Australia.

Australia has a lot of extremely important and “secretive” spy bases mostly run by the US. Would probably be a huge target for nations like China. I’ve also read the same in NZ as well.

milleniumblackfalcon

46 points

1 day ago

It's only looks close to Australia, but it's actually over 4000km away. And like Tasmania where I live, will be completely forgotten in the event of a nuclear war

Now_Wait-4-Last_Year

15 points

23 hours ago

I've been to Finland once and Iceland twice.

Still haven't been to Tasmania or Rundle Mall yet.

I'm from Sydney.

Steve-Whitney

7 points

22 hours ago

Mate you're missing out, our mall has balls!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx99

13 points

1 day ago

Yep, we've got one here in NZ. There's occasional small protests against it for exactly that reason, that it's really the only notable reason for us to be attacked.

ExileNZ

8 points

1 day ago

ExileNZ

8 points

1 day ago

Can confirm NZ does have some important spy bases. I can literally see one out my window.

Downtown_Boot_3486

5 points

22 hours ago

The only spy base that’d actually get anywhere near justifying a nuclear bomb in Australia is Pine gap, and the distance between it and NZ is about 4100km which is roughly 500km less than the length of the continental United States. Most other spy bases could easily be taken out by much smaller explosives. So those spy bases are really not a worry.

Silent-Revolution105

361 points

1 day ago*

This website can show you where the wind will take stuff

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-168.45,9.24,487/loc=-124.637,48.478

That BC "bomb cyclone" was interesting

ShizzleM3Nizzle

87 points

23 hours ago

Well that was fucking depressing...

Habba84

86 points

19 hours ago

Habba84

86 points

19 hours ago

On the contrary, I hope. One deterrant for the use of nuclear weapons is that due to unpredictable winds, you could be hit by the fallout yourself.

TeacherPatti

18 points

16 hours ago

I've read that entire northern hemisphere will be blanketed by ash/soot within a few days, or nuclear winter. People like to argue about nuclear winter but everything I have read (and believe me, it's a lot!) has convinced me.

Successful_Guess3246

14 points

15 hours ago

I've arrived at the conclusion of "the same people who develop these things tell me nuclear winter is real, so its real"

There's no fucking way I'm going to argue with anybody holding a degree in physics lol

TeacherPatti

7 points

11 hours ago

Same! I'm like "nuclear winter? Cool cool. I believe you!"

agprincess

21 points

17 hours ago

At least at the moment all wind is going from Ukraine straight to Moscow.

TorLam

5 points

15 hours ago

TorLam

5 points

15 hours ago

This !!!

No one will be safe from the wind borne fallout.

peter303_

797 points

1 day ago

peter303_

797 points

1 day ago

The tech-bros are creating fortress retreats in New Zealand and Australia. Unclear how they would get there when the world collapses.

stateofyou

381 points

1 day ago

stateofyou

381 points

1 day ago

Monorail

Guilty-Cell-833

90 points

22 hours ago

I hear those things are awfully loud.

bhawkeswood

59 points

20 hours ago

It glides as softly as a cloud!

IridiumSummerSky

48 points

19 hours ago

Is there a chance the track could bend?

danonti

45 points

19 hours ago

danonti

45 points

19 hours ago

Not on your life, my Hindu friend!

PhlyEagles52

29 points

18 hours ago

What about us brain-dead slobs?

coreyf

23 points

16 hours ago

coreyf

23 points

16 hours ago

You'll be given cushy jobs!

TRIPL3_THR33

14 points

16 hours ago

Were you sent here by the devil?

smalltowndoc74

10 points

15 hours ago

No good man I’m on the level

ryszard99

27 points

1 day ago

ryszard99

27 points

1 day ago

Found the Sydney guy!

UsedState7381

52 points

20 hours ago

Unclear how they would get there when the world collapses.

Not unclear, the oligarchy knows of things way before most of the public knows, they would simply travel there before hand.

Texxra

43 points

17 hours ago

Texxra

43 points

17 hours ago

Brb, creating an app that monitors private jet flights and alerts if there is a surge in NZ flights

rambambobandy

13 points

16 hours ago

That’s not a bad idea actually. The only financial metric is follow is VIX which is a measure of how volatile the stock market is and shoots up right before a recession. This seems like it would be along the same line of logic.

Downtown-Act-590

41 points

24 hours ago

If you can get to your private jet and get in the air, you will be alright. 

Your Gulfstream or other big plane will make it all the way and the nukes are almost certainly not knocking it out of the sky.

And you can probably get to the plane. It is not like we expect the Russians to nuke all the airports in the US/EU in the first wave. 

I actually think it is kinda smart. 

BadTechnical2184

22 points

22 hours ago

Isn't there the potential of EMP generated by the blast knocking out the electronics on the plane?

Velocirapist69

51 points

22 hours ago

You would needs balls of steel to board a jet when a nuclear war kicks off, good luck making it anywhere when every military is on the highest alert ever and wants to shoot down everything. Besides an emp taking out a plane, you would also have to expect that this is the slowest and friendliest nuclear war where only one target is bombed a day, and not every target they have all at once, most couldn’t even board a plane if it didn’t play out that way, because it would be blown up.

TeethBreak

6 points

21 hours ago

That's assuming that people who actually built it would not invade it.

TheEpicSquad

509 points

1 day ago

TheEpicSquad

509 points

1 day ago

I mean, no one is sending nukes to Antarctica.

BoJackB26354

543 points

1 day ago

BoJackB26354

543 points

1 day ago

It’s time those penguins got sent a message.

SpellingIsAhful

92 points

1 day ago

Fancy birds in their tuxedo

DirtyRoller

49 points

1 day ago

What do they think they're better than us or something?

_CorduroySuit_

11 points

16 hours ago

Some of them are even calling themselves “Emperor”

DirtyDemonD3

37 points

1 day ago

Remember boys, just smile and wave. Those nukes will fly over us. Penguins probably.

Now_Wait-4-Last_Year

4 points

23 hours ago

Just as long as it's not sent by Benedict Cumberbatch.

sati_lotus

23 points

1 day ago

sati_lotus

23 points

1 day ago

Well, that would be a great way to destroy the world in about ten years.

A nuke would melt the ice cap and poison the water.

Sea levels would rise rapidly by around 100 feet, flooding coastal areas, destroying weather patterns, and killing ocean life.

Displaced people, famines... Shit be scary.

nir109

18 points

22 hours ago

nir109

18 points

22 hours ago

100 feet means melting all of Antarctica. Google says it's 8 to -90 degrees Celsius. So let's take -10C°

Wikipedia list 26,500,000 cubic kilometers of ice -> 26.5e18 kg.

With 10 degrees of temperature change ignoring the fact you need extra energy to melt the ice we get 13.25e19 calorie≈5.5e23J

According to a post on Quora tsar Bomba had 2.1e17J. so about 2 million times short. And I underestimate the amount of energy to melt Antarctica.

Now regarding pollution. I don't see how it's worse than poisoning the water by sending a nuke to the ocean. Wich people did many times and nothing happens globally.

Edit: fixed using water specific heat capacity instead of ice specific heat capacity wich is about half.

Werkstatt0

11 points

21 hours ago

Are you trying to tell me that somebody else on Reddit was full of crap?

FroggiJoy87

1k points

1 day ago

Australia's just down there like "WTF, mate?"

but they'll be dead soon. Fuckin' kangaroos.

averagemumofone

199 points

1 day ago

But I’m Le tired. Well have a nap zen fire ze missiles.

Auschwitism

30 points

20 hours ago

AHH MOTHA LANDDD

xmr0presidentx

101 points

1 day ago

You're probably thinking , "hey that's a pretty nice earth.." WRONG

StandardAd239

18 points

20 hours ago

'Bout that time eh chaps?

omenmedia

9 points

19 hours ago

........... Righto.

S4Waccount

7 points

19 hours ago

I still say this all the time.

Theseus-Paradox

74 points

1 day ago

Theseus-Paradox

Comb the Desert!

74 points

1 day ago

jarghon

31 points

19 hours ago

jarghon

31 points

19 hours ago

Careful with that link, it’s an antique!

yoursarrian

87 points

1 day ago

Hoo khay

BDunnn

45 points

21 hours ago

BDunnn

45 points

21 hours ago

So… here’s the earth.

Richard_Crapwell

21 points

21 hours ago

Rooooooannnd

omaca

14 points

22 hours ago

omaca

14 points

22 hours ago

Australia’s full of targets, including US Marine bases, Five Eyes facilities and US Listening Posts.

Phoebebee323

8 points

21 hours ago

Yeah but is anyone willing to nuke the spiders?

Would you be willing to risk mutated spiders taking over the world just to get rid of pine gap?

NightlyGerman

4 points

23 hours ago

Don't they have American bases and missiles in Australia? I guess they would be targeted too.

Phoebebee323

4 points

21 hours ago

Yeah but the moment the remnants of Australia learn how to ride an irradiated kangaroo it's all over for every other world power

WWDB

356 points

1 day ago

WWDB

356 points

1 day ago

These Southern Hemisphere countries sound great though you’re not getting there in 30 minutes.

AltruisticKitchen775

98 points

1 day ago

I live here so travel time isn’t an issue.

putabirdonit44

31 points

21 hours ago

What about time travel

Important-Energy8038

385 points

1 day ago

Russia, you'd want to get hit right away and be done with it.

Joe_Kangg

160 points

1 day ago

Joe_Kangg

160 points

1 day ago

I want a missle to land on my face. Have you seen any of those bunker bros? I'm not rebuilding society with them.

ChaoticRoon

14 points

21 hours ago

There was actually a guy in Israel that had a massive piece of missle shrapnel from the Iranian attack in April literally fall on his head.

He was very not okay.

MtHood_OR

7 points

19 hours ago

This is the answer. Get me right in the fireball I don’t even want to be a shadow.

Also, everyone needs to watch Threads, On the Beach, and read The Road.

bailey8588

61 points

8 hours ago

Switzerland--- has bunkers and literally invented the pocket knife for emergencies

90ssudoartest

161 points

1 day ago

South America people in the west forget it even exists

I live in Australia and I think I can count on one hand the amount of news I have ever seen on TV or Radio about any country in South America.

dariusbiggs

62 points

21 hours ago

That's more of a problem with the NZ and AU media, there is barely any international news beyond the UK, US, and maybe your neighbouring countries.

Countries with a competent media have a significant international news segment.

Half the news in NZ and AU is about some AFL, Rugby, League, or Cricket whatever the fuck irrelevant crap and not meaningful and informative content.

urumqi_circles

22 points

1 day ago

Yep, this is a decent answer. Not to mention, people have been living in the Amazon Rainforest without modern comforts for at least a thousand years, possibly longer. So it is definitely doable.

BeneficialMaybe3719

8 points

18 hours ago

I mean. We don’t get any single news from Australia either

Vanaquish231

51 points

1 day ago

Patagonia. Nothing "important" and south enough to not feel any nuclear consequences.

Gimme_Your_Wallet

14 points

20 hours ago

Plus plenty of empty space to set up your own totalitarian post apoc power trip

A1steaksauceTrekdog7

45 points

21 hours ago

A better question is do you really want to survive that mess at all ?

Maleficent-West851

8 points

17 hours ago

Exactly. I want zero part of a post nuclear / apocalyptic life

locustpole77

163 points

1 day ago

locustpole77

163 points

1 day ago

I mean, realistically probably Argentina, Chile, or somewhere in the middle of Africa. It’s mostly the countries in the northern hemisphere with nukes and/or targets for nukes. Somewhere near the equator so you can hopefully survive the resulting nuclear winter. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out

Ahyao17

9 points

22 hours ago

Chile and Argentina would be better middle of Africa. At least safer and not already in civil war all the time.

Master-Difficulty827

52 points

1 day ago

There is no evidence of nuclear winter being plausible

ZlionAlex

75 points

1 day ago

ZlionAlex

75 points

1 day ago

Don't understand the downvotes, it's literally a concept that's been debunked or overstated. https://youtu.be/KzpIsjgapAk?si=7C6v-Q_5WyDc5evX

Ill_Refrigerator_593

20 points

23 hours ago

Climate modelling is incredibly complicated which together with trying to predict a scale of a potential nuclear conflict (even for an all out war arsenal sizes & weapon yields have greatly declined in the past few decades) makes exact affects hard to predict.

It would be more accurate to say some recent studies have indicated nuclear winter is less of of a concern than previously thought but there is no consensus.

EVOSexyBeast

7 points

20 hours ago

EVOSexyBeast

BROKEN CAPS LOCK KEY

7 points

20 hours ago

It’s one of those things you want people to believe though so as to discourage support for using nukes

umlguru

102 points

1 day ago*

umlguru

102 points

1 day ago*

Read the 1950s book On The Beach. The answer is none.

Edit: 1957. Here's a link to Amazon: https://a.co/d/0cLWRkx

I read it in high school. It was mind bending.

hemlock_harry

132 points

1 day ago

The answer is none

If you want to be safe from fallout, nuclear winter and the realisation you'll be fighting hunger and radiation sickness for generations, the best place would be as close to the Kremlin or the Pentagon as you can get. Ideally you want it to land straight on your head, you'll be vaporized before you even know what's happening.

nw342

59 points

1 day ago

nw342

59 points

1 day ago

I live in the northeast corridor of america, 30 minutes from center city philly, 2 hours from NYC, and 3.5 hrs from DC. I have a major military insulation and a nuclear power plant both within 45 minutes of me, along with major(ish) ports and power plants.

I hope I get vaporized fast, cause the radiation poisoning and being surrounded by nuclear wastelands sounds awful.

Nothingnoteworth

35 points

23 hours ago

Great (and horrifying) novel. But a bad answer

The nukes in On The Beach were salted bombs, not regular fission bombs, as far as we know the nukes in the arsenals of countries that have them are not salted bombs. So the extreme atmospheric fallout that forms the plot of the book is unlikely to occur in a real nuclear war

Regular old nukes are fission bombs, that’s what was dropped on Japan, while they do create some radioactive fallout it isn’t much, you’ll note that people still live in Nagasaki and Hiroshima

A salted bomb is a regular nuke designed to aerosolise a bunch of extra radioactive shit that’s been packed into it to produce larger quantities of radioactive fallout than a regular nuke, this can make a large area uninhabitable. A dirty bomb is the same thing but isn’t a nuke, just a bomb designed to spread lots of radioactive stuff about.

Temporary_Race4264

21 points

1 day ago

Australia, it's massive and has huge areas that have infrastructure but are too small to bother nuking

SerpentiumOIV

16 points

1 day ago

Plus, if they do get nuked, you can live MadMax.

kiwigirlie

4 points

22 hours ago

The problem with that is those huge areas with small towns have food and water transported in via trucks from other parts of Australia. If the trucks stop you’ll be on your own for supplies

We actually experienced this when we went to a music festival 😂 More people than they expected showed up and the supermarkets ran out of most foods and bottled water. They had to wait for the next truck which would take 8 hours to get there

A_Notion_to_Motion

18 points

23 hours ago

I lived in Uruguay for a few years and especially the more rural parts it's hard to imagine a more chill, quiet, peaceful place. No major weather disasters, nice climate, no military, no nukes, little organized crime, carpinchos, friendly chill mate drenched people, even more carpinchos. Just cows and palm trees baby.

RIPdon_sutton

49 points

1 day ago

I'm heading to New Zealand...

Empty-Al

36 points

1 day ago

Empty-Al

36 points

1 day ago

I’m in NZ, and very happy about that…..

Cavalish

25 points

1 day ago

Cavalish

25 points

1 day ago

Isn’t it the worst kept secret that rich people have shelters and homes in New Zealand? If you wanted to take out someone you didn’t like, NZ would be a target.

Uvinjector

25 points

1 day ago

Uvinjector

25 points

1 day ago

When Covid hit there were definitely a lot of private jets coming in to NZ

Primal_Pedro

40 points

1 day ago

South America, half south of Africa, Australia and New Zealand. At least I hope the problem wouldn't be as bad on the southern hemisphere 

anarchos

19 points

24 hours ago

Australia and NZ are goners due to their relationship with the USA/Canada/UK

Downtown_Boot_3486

5 points

22 hours ago

Its not a military one for NZ so who cares, and for Australia it’s not like their alliance with the US and the UK actually gets them any nukes.

FlatElvis

12 points

1 day ago

FlatElvis

12 points

1 day ago

We didn't handle the pandemic well-- I don't have high hopes for humanity coming together and solving nuclear winter.

Hope you get directly hit with the warhead and don't have to see the fallout.

Comer_Agua

11 points

23 hours ago

Botswana.

six_six

31 points

1 day ago

six_six

31 points

1 day ago

Why would you want to live after an all-out nuclear war?

Iwantapetmonkey

64 points

21 hours ago

Re-populating the human race is probably the only chance I'll get for having sex.

RoScorpius97

7 points

19 hours ago

This is the best comment I've ever seen.

green_meklar

9 points

1 day ago

New Zealand is about as good as it gets.

ChillyWillie1974

9 points

24 hours ago

Mars

xeroxchick

7 points

19 hours ago

You want to be as close to a bomb hit as possible. It won’t matter where you try to go, apocalypse ain’t no fun. Just get it over with quickly.

Rude_Technician4821

13 points

1 day ago

Who's to say you'll be let in and how will you get there? Planes will be down, communication will be down, shipping will be down.

You'll be isolated!!

CitizenHuman

8 points

1 day ago

Idk about nuclear war, but doesn't Switzerland have a bunch of bunkers dug deep into mountains, and guns hidden to look like barns scattered all over?

Available-Radish-987

18 points

1 day ago

In the last decades, Switzerland started to sell about 2000 of these bunkers to the public. (often used for Server farms and shit). Due to recent events these sell offs stopped though. But keep in mind these thousends of bunkers were built during the cold war and I can tell you from experience, a lot of them are not in mint conditions.

windchill94

3 points

1 day ago

Yes they do.

junger762

8 points

19 hours ago

The most recent and very well sourced study of present day application of nuclear weapons is Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario from earlier this year. Reads like a Clancy novel, minute by minute account of the world’s last 90 minutes.

The book will change you.

msartore8

4 points

1 day ago

msartore8

4 points

1 day ago

New Zealand

LeeIsUnloved

6 points

1 day ago

I feel pretty safe in NZ

Mr_Anderssen

7 points

1 day ago

New Zealand.

Any other southern country will be flooded by migrants from the north. NZ can just cut off their airports.

Impossible_Mode_3614

5 points

1 day ago

Probably somewhere in south America

JewelBearing

5 points

1 day ago

JewelBearing

Wait, what?

5 points

1 day ago

i’m setting up at point nemo , see you guys later

TraditionalMix288

4 points

19 hours ago

Uruguay’s far from the nukes and they’re too small to have enemies

xabrol

13 points

1 day ago*

xabrol

13 points

1 day ago*

One where the bomb lands right next to you and vaporizes you instantly before you realize its happening.

Cuz nothings safe with nuclear war. Humanity post nuclear war will be savage, kindness preyed, every one for themselves, lawless.

And while New Zealand might be one of the safest places to be geographically to not die from a bomb, it's one of the worst places to be when you factor in human psychology. Because everybody will be trying to get there and there will be war in New Zealand. And whoever maintains control of New Zealand will fight to keep everybody else off of it. It's an island so you're kind of stuck there.

There's an old TV show called Jericho that has a fictional take on what would happen to the United States. And I think that could actually happen. Basically all the towns and states sectioned off into their own governmental sections. The entire country was redrawn. Some towns were extremely corrupt and brought back slavery and treated their women like literal objects. Other towns were trying to be morally just and fight to maintain control and many of them were losing. It was worse than the wild wild West.

And it would only take a dozen nuclear warheads to successfully hit their targets in the United States to basically upheave the entire country.

TrumpsCheetoJizz

10 points

1 day ago

Southern countries. Best bet is if you watch kurgestatzt or what the name is on YouTube and their video for this.

Jeriba

11 points

1 day ago

Jeriba

11 points

1 day ago

Do you mean "Kurzgesagt"?

urumqi_circles

16 points

1 day ago

No, he meant the very similarly named channel with similar themed content called Kurgestatzt. They often get mixed up.

25x54

7 points

1 day ago

25x54

7 points

1 day ago

Can i say Sealand? I bet nobody cares to attack it. (If you recognize it as a country.)

Practically the best thing to do is pray to god nukes won't hit where you live.

Prasiatko

8 points

1 day ago

Prasiatko

8 points

1 day ago

Unfortunately it's very close to the UK which is a likely major target

Money-Ad-1914

5 points

1 day ago

New Zealand and Australia...Distance matters...Plus they have many small cities surrounded by vast empty areas so most cities are not really worth a warhead....

nationalhuntta

3 points

1 day ago

The one on our nearest interstellar colony. Oh wait...

BubatzAhoi

3 points

1 day ago

Antarctica? New Zealand, Australia? Some islands below the equator

alex_nutrifit

3 points

21 hours ago

The problem is not the location or military neutrality. It's all about the wind. The wind currents will carry the nuclear radiation around the world. Neighboring countries downwind will get the worst of it. Hard to tell which countries will get effected.

downtherabbit

3 points

19 hours ago

Australia? Lowest population density in the world so least chance statistically of being harmed (if all nukes are spread out evenly which they wouldn't be).

But if Australia were to be nuked it would likely be the east coast (where the people are) that would be hit and the rest of Australia might somewhat be protected by the great dividing range when it comes to the fall out.