I was at the beach the other day, more like a few weeks ago. I had an awesome time, built a huge pyramid, had a toddler gaping at it. Good times. It was quite beautiful, nice warm and sunny. Kids were laughing, only a few people were in the water because it's so goddamn cold up here. I remember looking over to a small group of little children, each of them laughing and fleeing from the waves. And then I got this feeling, something telling me that what I was seeing was going to be a cherished memory, if I was going to be alive to remember it at all. I think I've been losing sleep over this more recently, because I get the feeling more often. I'm afraid that there is going to be a nuclear holocaust. It's not a nutty psychic instinct or anything, just a fear, a natural fear that unilateralism, among other things, is going to lead the nation and the world to a terrible, fiery end. People have undoubtedly been afraid of something like this occuring for decades now, but somehow I think that by the minute the clock is getting inexorably closer to nuclear midnight. Maybe it's time to lay off the Zinn, eh?
http://www.thebulletin.org/media/current.html As this article shows the doomsday clock is now at the position it debuted at during the cold war....
Well that's one thing that is true about the matter. If you were anywhere near the epicenter of a blast of a nuclear device, you wouldn't feel a thing, and you'd be dying together, instantly, along with millions of other people (or thousands, depending on where you were when it occurred) You would be completely disintegrated immediately. Now, if you were 5 miles away from the epicenter (depending on the bomb/missile/device, more or less than 5 miles), you could die a slower death, say if a building collapsed on you and you were trapped, or you might die of radiation poisoning. The earth will not completely end due to a nuclear disaster, it is just not possible (not directly anyway). For one thing, there are places where people would not be directly affected by a nuclear explosion, like indian tribes in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. Also, small towns like little places in Idaho would never be targeted because they have such a small population, military or terrorist structures would want to go for more valuable targets like Los Angeles. Even if there are 50,000 nuclear devices laying around, that is still not enough to cover every square inch of the planet. Now, could hundreds of millions, if not billions of people die? Sure, but not every last one of 6 billion. A nuclear holocaust could potentially lead to the extinction of the human race (and or the rest of the planet) indirectly over time. For example, if everywhere except some very chaotic places on earth were targeted (like South Africa), the people in these chaotic places may not have the resources, organization, and or skills to rebuild the world or maintain a society that could survive. For example, to bring the population numbers back up, South Africa may be struggling with AIDS problems, where reproduction would be very inefficient. In some places there is no central government, very little to no technology, mass choas, and crime of all kinds, everywhere. Under these conditions, the people of these "chaotic" places, may not be able to bring things back, due to already existing struggles in their own areas, and the fact that most of the rest of the world would have been destroyed (so travelling to north Africa to find hospitals may prove vain because they might have been vaporized by nukes). I don't think a nuclear disaster will end the earth. Now, could it kill billions of people? Yep. Do I personally think this will happen? I don't know, there may be a nuclear disaster, however I think at most it would only kill hundreds of millions (not billions). For example, I dobut Russia or China really has much motivation to drop nukes on South America, in fact I don't think anyone outside of the continent really has much qualm against them. Obviously many people hate north america. There are alot of potential targets in Europe, as well as in Asia. The al quida terrorists have made it clear they hate Australians, though aside from that I don't think many nations would go after Australia. I doubt Africa would be much of a target either, at least a target from anyone outside of the continent itself.
Actually .....The US alone can destroy the world 6 times over but its not needed since some nukes can most likley throw this place out of orbit.
That is not true. Don't know where you heard or read that - if you did either it was from an inaccurate source. That is true, and something I already stated in my reply.......
:bugeye: That sounded really exciting but it's just people. moving the hands of a clock around. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Don't primary school kids do things like that, like when they colour in charts to show something, like donations for charities.
john titor indicated that there is going to be a civil war within the US in 2005 and ending in 2013 with a nuclear war. you should read more about this guy.
I did read about John Titor (don't worry, I'm into pseudoscience too). Like almost everything in that field the man is a fraud. I guess we'll just have to see, though. I live pretty far away from most legitimate nuclear targets, Maine has only a population of a million or so. My fear stems from the movie Failsafe, which is an awesome, awesome film watch it if you get the chance. A man on the phone near a nuclear blast in that film describes what is happening. He says something like this-- "There's been a flash, it seems like it's getting warmer--" then the phone just SCREAMS, really, really screams. It's apparently the moment that line on the other end is melting from the heat. To me, that was more terrifying than many, many other things. And I believe there are enough nukes on Earth to reduce us to a second asteroid field should the need arise.
Why would you fear nuclear holocaust? and if such an event is soon to occur, how you can feel that the beach scene will be a cherished memory? If you no longer exist, neither does your memory.
Well because I live in such a remote area there's a small chance that I'd survive the initial war as well as the radiation.
If you think that you might be about to die a slow tragic death, then think of yourself as termanally ill and enjoy whatever you can while you have it. Otherwise, get a job and buy a radiation suit...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Why didn't I think of that before? Now that sounds like a plan. Qiothus, I'd like to appoint you Prime Minister of the post-apocalyptic world. Your first order of business should be getting the terminally ill back to work, as well as acquiring some radiation suits.
I don't think such an event will ever occur simply because they know once the bombs drop, it's over for everyone. Of course, I might be over-estimating the human race... in which case, God help us! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Pollux, I had this horrible fear after I watched the movie The Day After. It freaked me out. I was only 14 when I saw it. You eventually get over it. Ya ya, the world could end at any moment. Big deal. I think that this fear deals a lot with people becoming adults. When you go from 13, to 14, then to 15, you change a lot mentally. You wake up to the fact that bad things can happen to you. A 12 year old doesn't know why that man wants him the van. So a 12 year old doesn't know that the world could blow up at any moment. But once you wake up to that fact... Your not a kid anymore. Watch: On The Beach (The Older Version, and read the book) The Day After Terminator 2 Omega Man Soylent Green /CounslerCoffee
