SCIENTISTS have revealed where you should head during an apocalypse event.
In the event of a nuclear winter, there are just a few island nations that could continue to produce enough food to feed its population.
1
A nuclear winter is what scientists think will happen following large-scale atomic warfare.
It’s prolonged and severe global climatic cooling, with widespread firestorms blocking direct sunlight.
The expected result is widespread crop failure and famine, which could devastate populations.
But scientists now believe that New Zealand is among five island nations that could weather the nuclear storm.
“Islands such as New Zealand are often very dependent on imports of refined liquid fuel, may lack energy self-sufficiency and are susceptible to breakdowns and shortages of critical commodities,” said study author Professor Nick Wilson, of the University of Otago, Wellington.
“While New Zealand could divert a high proportion of its dairy exports to supply the local market, it lacks the ability to manufacture many replacement parts for farm and food processing machinery.”
The study involved looking at abrupt sunlight-reducing situations.
This could’ve been caused by nuclear war, super volcano eruptions, or asteroid impacts.
Most read in Tech
Next they applied the “nuclear winter” conditions to 38 island nations to see how they fared in terms of food calorie supply.
Some nations would be able to provide enough food, while others simply couldn’t cope due to “collapse of industry and social functioning”.
But countries that coped include New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
The authors warned that many countries would find themselves in a precarious position during such a catastrophe.
“New Zealand has the potential to preserve an industrial society through this kind of catastrophe, but it is not ‘plug-and-play’,” said researcher Dr Matt Boyd, from Adapt Research, who worked on the study published in journal Risk Analysis.
“A decent amount of strategic planning needs to happen and across a long period of time, but this planning would have benefits in dealing with a wide range of extreme risks.”
Now governments around the world are being urged to analyse how they would fare during nuclear winter.
“We are not aware of any plan for this kind of global catastrophe, including whether priorities for rationing have been considered,” Dr Boyd warned.
“With the government expected to release New Zealand’s first National Security Strategy this year it is important that the catastrophic risks associated with abrupt sunlight reducing scenarios do not slip through the cracks.”
