Apocalypse now? Well, people on Twitter seem to think so…
The words ‘World War 3’ trended on social media on a massive scale worldwide after tensions between Turkey and Russia rose, after they shot down a Russian jet over its airspace.
Are you sitting comfortably? Well, you shouldn’t be. Just to freak us the fuck out, Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said that nuclear war was now ‘likely’. For fuck sake. Better invest in a kickass underground bunker before that happens then…
According to the Arms Control Association, they estimate that Russia has 7,700 weapons in service, of which are 4,500 are stockpiled and 1,548 are deployed on missiles and at air bases. So yeah, quite a lot of firepower.
But I bet you want to know what actually would happen if it all kicked. Well experts have now revealed the scenario would play itself out if the world got involved in a nuclear war… and it’s not pretty.
First off, you wouldn’t even get a four-minute warning- a national system of sirens which would go off during a nuclear attack’ because it was retired back in 1992. Hindsight is a wonderful thing…
LifeInstead, you’d probably get a text. Because nothing says ‘we care about you’ more than a text message. The government have tested that system for a while now, and was tested in Glasgow and Yorkshire back in 2013.
By the time you get that message (especially if you’re in a shocking signal area), there’s understandably little you could do. At the moment, there is nothing to stop these kind of missiles. Oh and your four minute minute warning would essentially turn to three- good luck with that.
But don’t worry, if you were near the crash site anyway there won’t be much left of you anyway. Witnesses of the infamous Hiroshima attack said that people near the centre of the blast simply ‘vanished’. Grim. The warheads the U.S. and Russia have too are a load more powerful as well.
If you wanted to get an idea of how a bomb would effect a city, look no further than London. According to experts, if a bomb dropped on the English capital, the destruction would spread as far south as Horsham, West Sussex to as far north as Luton. The initial blast would kill and injure 10 million people- and that would simply spiral over the coming days.
In the U.S., the consequences of nuclear war would be catastrophic. The U.S. Congress’s Office of Technology predicted 80% of their nation would be killed immediately, with further casualties from radiation.
Just in case you wouldn’t a minimal chance of surviving this man-made doomsday scenario, government agencies advise you seek shelter (ideally below ground and surrounded by thick concrete). Duh.
You should also ration all your supplies- as you’ll be there a while! Cover yourself well up to expose as little skin to the radioactive air as possible and once you are told it’s safe to leave- evacuate the premises. Simple.
Obviously this kind of catastrophe would have a huge impact on life on our planets, and would apparently leave us worse off than depicted in games such as Fallout 4- according to science magazine Smithsonian.com. If that’s anything to go by, that’s pretty horrific.
The remnants of the attack would cause a huge drop in temperature and could impact global rainfall and the growing season of crops. So, if you were planning on surviving, planet Earth wouldn’t make it very easy for you.
Sorry to put a downer on your day…
