If 2023 is the year the world starts to crumble, scientists think they know where you should go to survive.
this The Doomsday Clock Has Been Moved to the Closest Ever Come to a Global Catastrophe – Mainly because of the Russian invasion Ukraine besides climate crisis.
Now, researchers say Australia and new Zealand It is one of five island nations most likely to survive an apocalyptic nuclear winter.
The study, jointly conducted by the University of Otago in New Zealand and Adapt Research, looked at the impact on global agricultural systems of “severe sun-decreasing disasters” such as nuclear war, supervolcanoes or asteroid strikes.
The researchers found that Australia, New Zealand, IcelandThe United States, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are best positioned to continue producing food in the face of dwindling sunlight and lower temperatures — and help restart a crumbling human civilization.
They investigated the impact of the Sudden Sunlight Reduction Scenario (ASRS) on 38 island nations and assessed 13 factors that may determine their survival success.
These include comparing countries’ food production, energy self-sufficiency, manufacturing, trade relations, social cohesion, defense and population size.
“Even in the most severe ASRS, there may be a small fraction of survivors on Earth,” the study said, with only the most “resilient” nations surviving.
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Using New Zealand as a case study, they found that while it may be able to produce enough food in a crisis like this, its “short links” lie in manufacturing and its reliance on energy imports.
The researchers also found that the effects of nuclear winter or other ASRS would not be similarly affected, with physical damage, radioactive contamination and temperature drops most likely to occur and most severe in the northern rather than southern hemisphere.
The researchers concluded: “Our hypothesis is that island nations, especially those in the southern hemisphere, are generally less affected by ASRS. Complex technological societies on these islands are likely to persist and targeted preparations may increase the global recovery possibility.”
The research has been published in the international journal Risk Analysis.
A nuclear winter is caused by the soot from a large-area warhead detonation.File picture of an imagined atomic explosion
It is said that nuclear winter refers to the huge fireball produced by the explosion of a nuclear warhead that ignites a large area of land, causing a large amount of smoke and dust to eventually enter the atmosphere and envelope the surface of the earth. While millions of people would die in a nuclear disaster, millions more would die from the impact on food supplies.