“Just” sending us back to pre electronic technology is a problem because … all our manufacturing chains today are built using high tech electronics (chips etc.). So it’s not like going back to the 19th century society - because in the 19th century, they did, in fact, have manufacturing chains set up, and quite extensive ones. We would not have such manufacturing chains. And setting up would be impossible - because all manufacturing chains depend on other manufacturing chain, there is circular and mutual inter-dependence so building anything at all when everything has stopped working is basically impossible. Furthermore, all modern agriculture also depends on manufactured components (e.g. tractors), and, worse, is also largely computerized - drones to spray fields, observe crops, monitor pollinators. And the tractors - like cars - also contain electronics. Fertilized manufacture depends on computerized manufacturing lines. Etc. And, we have 8 times as many people to feed. By the way, this is also the reason I’m so concerned about China taking Taiwan - because losing access to those chips would eventually have the same effect, only a bit more slowly than a Carrington type event.
Groundwater Contamination
Chris, do you have any thoughts on groundwater contamination if there is a nuclear blast say a few hundred miles away but you’re in a region which might be reached by the fallout? I pump my water from boreholes. I don’t know how deep they are but I assume fairly deep. How much does ground water become contaminated? I’m guessing some radioactive material could leach into the ground water, but it exponentially attenuates the deeper you go, as a certain percentage gets stuck at any given depth? The radioactive elements are heavy, so they may sink to the bottom? How quickly does the water become contaminated (if it does) and how long does it stay contaminated? I guess it also depends on the structure of the ground, i.e. how permeable the layers above and below the water table are? Someone must have thought about this and I wonder if you have any illuminating information about this question.
Oh I get it’s bad, I get the economy will collapse, I get large % of people will starve and I get there will be roving gangs of murderers will be running around robbing raping and killing everything in site… I just don’t see how that worse than a global thermonuclear war… irradiating all fields crops animals people and things on the planet… I don’t see how we can come back from that… an Emp though maybe after all the death and destruction and we rebuild we will lose a lot of modern conviences. But there is still a lot of infrastructure pre microchip to rebuild… I was around in the 70s short of the computers internet and cell phones life was that much different… I got a 40s 2n tractor that’s not going care about an Emp and can run off wood gas if needed and those are still everywhere. And old VW bug that’s also not going to care. And old drill press and lathe same story. Old diesels. Old generators etc… rebuilding will only be a problem due to chaos and we won’t need to produce 8x the food after all that… now if my fields are radioactive for a thousands years whether I have computers and drones to spray my crops is kind of a moot point… I’ll agree to disagree in terms of survival the nukes are the toughest nut to crack vs Emp for me…
Thank-you for sharing this video, Rodster. Very eye-opening and, frankly, terrifying. Per atmospheric scientist Brian Toon, a nuclear exchange may not be something our species survives.
(Video 11:37) In the 1980’s Toon, Carl Sagan, Richard Turco, Russain Scientists and others talked to Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to tell them about the dangers of a nuclear war. They told them that a nuclear war could turn into a nuclear winter that could end civilization as we know it…and they listened.
Per Reagan:
"A great many reputable scientists are telling us that such a war could just end up in no victory for anyone because we would wipe out the earth as we know it."And per Gorbachev:
"Models made by Russian and American Scientists showed that a nuclear war would result in a nuclear winter that would be extremely destructive to all life on earth; the knowledge of that was a great stimulus to us, to people of honor and morality, to act in that situation." [bold mine]And therein lies our problem. Our ""leaders"" do not listen, and lack the morality and honor that would motivate a person of integrity to do what is right for humankind. The clowns carelessly juggling with our fate do not give me much hope for our future...