Last year, after hearing Vladimir Putin threaten Ukraine and the West with nuclear weapons, Matt Boyd and Nick Wilson, two researchers from the University of Otago in Wellington, New Zealand, are considering the subject. What would be the place in the world that would guarantee us the best chance of survival? The place to be to prevent the extinction of humanity, in the event of a nuclear apocalypse, but also of a massive volcanic eruption or the fall of an asteroid?
It sounds like a big-budget movie script, but this study published in December in the journal Risk Analysis couldn’t be more serious. By modeling the consequences of the reduction in sunshine and the cooling of the climate which would inevitably set in after this type of disaster.
Soot in the atmosphere
In the event of a regional nuclear conflict, for example, burning cities are known to release five megatons of soot into the stratosphere, which could lower temperatures by an average of 1.8°C, deal a terrible blow to crops and cause the greatest food shortage in recent history.
In a full-scale conflict between NATO and Russia, nuclear winter would even drop agricultural production by 90% in mid- or high-latitude countries, China, Russia or the United States.
https://t.co/GEMNHF2rZ9
In a landmark study published in the journal of Risk Analysis, researchers have concluded that Australia and New Zealand stand as the strongest contenders for the population to rebuild in the event of a catastrophic nuclear winter.
—Paul Malley (@readpigg) February 9, 2023
The researchers first came to the conclusion that the islands of the southern hemisphere are the best placed. They compared 38 and the big winner was Australia. Not too surprising to tell the truth, this is not the first time that a study of this kind has made it the champion of survival.
wheat crops
Why Australia? Because if the temperatures drop, the wheat will grow very well and this huge country-continent will be able to “feed tens of millions more people” in relation to its population also because it is protected by its location very far from potential nuclear conflicts in the northern hemisphere. Because it has good infrastructure, vast power generation capacity, and spends three times as much on its defense as any other island studied in this work.