Your favourite type of Apocalypse

KenjiOdo

ScumLord wrote: »

Yeah, peak oil is a scary scenario. There are a number of peak scenarios, there's also peak phosphorus, which will mean our fertilizers will become less effective.

Seeing the after effects of Chernobyl a nuclear holocaust may not be as bad as we think. It seems most other life isn't affected all that much by radiation and nature will more than likely take over pretty quickly.

Chernobyl was a meltdown though not a nuclear detonation, there is something like 15k-20k active nuclear warheads around the globe today (Down from the region of 100k during the cold war era). Still enough to strike every major city in the world to be annihilated I imagine.

The blast area of modern H -bombs over the A-Bombs dropped on Nagasaki & Hiroshima is widely increased and they were fairly devastating we all know. (I can't link url yet) url: c14608526.r26.cf2.rackcdn.com/94261284-F15F-4B88-ADE9-9E1320BE7220.jpg

So, I don't think a nuclear holocaust could be anyway comparable to Chernobyl..

ScumLord

KenjiOdo wrote: »

The blast area of modern H -bombs over the A-Bombs dropped on Nagasaki & Hiroshima is widely increased and they were fairly devastating we all know. (I can't link url yet) url: c14608526.r26.cf2.rackcdn.com/94261284-F15F-4B88-ADE9-9E1320BE7220.jpg

True, the scale is much bigger these days, but I've heard people say there are many of those missiles that aren't ready to go and that the actual functional number is much lower than the on paper number.

I wouldn't worry too much about life in general though, it's survived worse than nuclear winter, I think humans can survive just about anything at this stage too but the world that they'd have to exist in would be horrible.

KenjiOdo

ScumLord wrote: »

True, the scale is much bigger these days, but I've heard people say there are many of those missiles that aren't ready to go and that the actual functional number is much lower than the on paper number.

I've also heard that. But even 200 Nukes ready for launch would be devastating. Every major city would be gone.

ScumLord wrote: »

I wouldn't worry too much about life in general though, it's survived worse than nuclear winter, I think humans can survive just about anything at this stage too but the world that they'd have to exist in would be horrible.

True - I'd much prefer radioactive fish over zombie fish!

ScumLord

KenjiOdo wrote: »

I've also heard that. But even 200 Nukes ready for launch would be devastating. Every major city would be gone.

That's true but it wouldn't be the complete devastation we're lead to believe it would be. It wouldn't be the end of modern civilization as we know it, but humans and life in general would survive and more than likely prosper in the aftermath. There probably would be enough time for governments to go into hiding and enough unaffected land for new nations to set up on. Our biggest danger is being next to the UK, they're more than likely on the hit list but my guess is the majority of nuclear arsenals are pointing at the big players, the US, Russia and China.

I think for the most part our weather comes in from the atlantic ocean so hopefully we wouldn't get too much fallout either.

Devastating yes, but survivable for the human race.

cml387

Dunno if "favourite" can be defined as mst likely.
Nuclear war would disrupt all manner of things, trade, communications etc. so that although Ireland mightn't be directly affected it would be very unpleasant.

I still think the most likey is global pandemic.

One apocalyptic scenario is visitation from a hugely advanced civilisation, leading to decline and fall of human civilisation (see Incas ) from culture shock. Now that would be interesting.

ScumLord

cml387 wrote: »

Dunno if "favourite" can be defined as mst likely.
Nuclear war would disrupt all manner of things, trade, communications etc. so that although Ireland mightn't be directly affected it would be very unpleasant.

I'm fully convinced that the zombies wouldn't really be the problem in a global outbreak. The problems would start when global trade is obstructed. If we can't trade overseas everything would effectively shut down, we don't make a lot of the stuff we use, both personally and in business.

Trade is a fundamental part of the modern world, it's been a driving influence in human development since before we were humans. It is the cornerstone of human culture. Without it everything we know breaks down.

I still think the most likey is global pandemic.

I think that becomes less problematic every year. The western world is pretty safe from these kind of disease outbreaks. Our sewage systems and cleanliness are actually the main weapons against disease. They simply can't get a foothold and spread as easily in western countries.

One apocalyptic scenario is visitation from a hugely advanced civilisation, leading to decline and fall of human civilisation (see Incas ) from culture shock. Now that would be interesting.

It could happen but I think if there are advanced aliens out there and they know about us, they won't be presenting themselves to us any time soon. The only value we would really have to them is as something to study. We'd be an insight into how a smart animal turns into a civilized, cooperate animal.