Nuclear war is unlikely to cause human extinction?

Re:Nuclear war is unlikely to cause human extinction? by goatlover on Friday November 13, 2020 @03:39AM (#25080344)

What if the Southern Hemisphere isn't targeted? Fallout will mostly effect the northern hemisphere, and if there isn't a nuclear winter (or a milder one than projected), then the damage will be largely economic to those nations. But their infrastructure and ability to grow food would remain intact.

I suppose refugees and the political vacuum created would be significant problems.

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Re:Nuclear war is unlikely to cause human extinction? by tachyonbeam on Friday November 13, 2020 @12:14PM (#25084560)

IIRC the nuclear winter would not be as bad as once predicted, you could see a 10 celsius drop. That would still be enough to greatly reduce crop yields though.

If you couple reduced crop yields with millions of hungry refugees, economic instability and general chaos... Who knows. Unlikely to result in human extinction, but very painful for everyone no doubt. I do think it seems unlikely that people would nuke Australia and South America. I honestly hope that if nukes are ever fired, as many countries as possible remain untouched.

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Re:Nuclear war is unlikely to cause human extinction? by LargoLasskhyfv on Monday November 16, 2020 @03:31PM (#25116634)

Regarding at least Australia for not being nuked:

Have you ever heard of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap ?

While that is only one target, and in the middle of nowhere at that, do you still think so? For me that looks like a very valuable target to disrupt the operations of anyone who operates from there.

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