The Myth That Nuclear Weapons Can Kill Everyone On Earth-many times over

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Dayton3, Mar 23, 2018.

  1. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    https://newatlas.com/nuclear-weapons-satan-missile/46845/

    this website does an excellent job debunking a myth that has been around since the 1950s. It seems to be based on pure statistical extrapolation but it is still bunk.

    People think that

    1) because a 15 kiloton nuclear weapon killed 200,000 people in Hiroshima (probably an inflated number) that a
    2) nuclear weapon ten times bigger (150 kilotons) would kill ten times as many people 2,000,000 and that a
    3) a nuclear weapon ten times bigger than that (1.5 megatons) would kill ten times as many as that (20,000,000).

    That kind of thinking is of course compete BS.

    The website above points out that if the most commonly deployed (by the U.S.) strategic nuclear warhead (W88) with a yield of 475 kilotons hit London, it would kill 625,000 people.

    But if it hit Minot, North Dakota (a key U.S. military base) it would only kill about 3,000.

    The myths about the lethality of nuclear weapons have hobbled the conduct of U.S. foreign policy for decades.
     
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  2. Lesh

    Lesh Banned

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    You sorta forget that if one nuke is fired that thousands of nukes will be fired.

    Aside from the immediate destruction (which would be beyond comprehension) have you considered the cumulative effect of all that radiation and fallout?

    Of course not.

    Go sit in the corner
     
  3. precision

    precision Well-Known Member

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    Actually you are right. They can't kill all human life. What they will do eventually is to end human civilization as we know it currently, and make life very difficult for the humans who do survive the coming catastrophe.
     
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  4. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    Most of those nukes would see redundant targeting and almost all would be air bursts that severely limit fallout.
     
  5. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    How would it end human civilization when there are almost no nuclear targets in the Southern Hemisphere?
     
  6. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What about nuclear reactors? Nuclear war may not kill everyone, but it would destabilize society. The EMP effects alone would destroy all trade, communication and finances. This would totally disrupt the manpower and maintenance logistics that nuclear power plants rely on to run properly. Coupled with the social chaos, famine, disease and war that would result from large scale nuclear exchange, nuclear reactors in uncontrolled meltdown across the globe could render most or all of the planet unfit for human use. Each one of them is a radiological catastrophe just waiting for the appropriate amount of human ignorance.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2018
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  7. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    Website addresses this. There aren't even more than a couple of thousand nuclear weapons deployed any more than can be launched in an all out war. Half of American and Russian warheads are in storage
     
  8. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    When all the nuclear reactors in the northern hemisphere go into uncontrolled perpetual meltdown after the humans maintaining them stop showing up for work, wind and water currents will carry their radiological devastation all over the globe.
     
  9. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    Nuclear reactors melting down for the most part do not result in widespread radioactive contamination because (aside from some Soviet built reactors) they have a containment vessel that largely prevents the spread of radioactivity.
     
  10. Ronstar

    Ronstar Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    so 4,000 nukes hitting the USA is no big deal???????????????????

    LOL.....oh you guys
     
  11. Lucifer

    Lucifer Well-Known Member

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    There's only one way to prove your hypothesis, which is to do a live test.

    Please send me your latitude and longitude coordinates.
     
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  12. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    You have actual evidence of this?
     
  13. Lesh

    Lesh Banned

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    Ever hear of Three Mile Island?

    Fukajima?
     
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  14. Ronstar

    Ronstar Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Conservatives are now downplaying the mass devastation and human toll that would come with a worldwide nuclear war.

    unbelievable
     
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  15. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    How many people died as a result of both those accidents?
     
  16. Dayton3

    Dayton3 Well-Known Member

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    The Russians and Chinese combined do not possess 4,000 nuclear weapons available for use against the United States. Look at the linked to website if you don't believe me.

    And I never said it would be "no big deal".
     
  17. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Like Fukushima? How much worse would Fukushima be if no one responded to mitigate its damage? It'll be that multiplied by how ever many reactors there are on the planet.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2018
  18. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Evidence of what? That reactors melt down when no one is there to maintain them? Or that people stop showing up for work and industrial maintainance becomes logistically impossible when theres nuclear war and mass socioeconomic collapse?

    Which part of this am I deducing illogically? What do you think would happen instead?
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2018
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  19. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    Most of the nuclear reactors in the northern hemisphere are themselves located in or near nuclear targets or are nuclear targets.
     
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  20. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    I’m not a conservative and everything Dayton has posted is accurate. Nuclear weapons cannot destroy all life on Earth in any nuclear exchange between world powers.
     
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  21. Lesh

    Lesh Banned

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    Not even close to the point. It shows that containment domes don't work without power to run the cooling pumps
     
  22. Lesh

    Lesh Banned

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    He's trying stupidly to make a case that a nuclear war "wouldn't be that bad"...That's idiotic.

    But he will tell us that we have to start a nuclear war to proven ONE nuke possibly hitting one target.

    This is just total insanity
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2018
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  23. Lesh

    Lesh Banned

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    The actual word should be "cataclysmic"
     
  24. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidb...ll-have-effects-on-global-scale/#2ecb6ce4507d

    Tactical weapons are the little ones.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2018
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  25. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    No he’s not. No where has he said that. He is countering the false claim that nuclear war would destroy all life on earth or that it would end human civilization. Neither are true.
     
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