Australia and New Zealand: Havens in nuclear apocalypse
The first moments after a nuclear attack would be terrifying. Expert Annie Jacobsen explains that most people would die in fires or from radiation poisoning. Only two countries could sustain life: Australia and New Zealand.
Annie Jacobsen is an investigative journalist and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her latest book, titled Nuclear War: A Scenario, details what nuclear war and the aftermath of a nuclear attack might look like.
The author appeared on Steven Bartlett's podcast, The Diary of a CEO, where she discussed the potential scenario if a nuclear bomb with a yield of one megaton hit the USA or the United Kingdom. The journalist's scenario is frightening.
In the first seconds of the attack, many cities would vanish from the face of the earth, consumed by an unimaginable temperature of over 324 million degrees Fahrenheit.
A burst of thermonuclear energy and extreme heat, soaring to around 180 million degrees Celsius, would engulf everything in a radius of about 14 kilometres. The forceful winds would bring buildings down, and the fires triggered in the aftermath would ignite even more flames, as noted by the American journalist.
Those who survive the initial attack wouldn't escape tragedy for long. They would suffer from illnesses or perish in the "megafire."
Those who initially survived would still face lethal radiation sickness, leading to a painful death within minutes, hours, days, or weeks. And even if they withstood that, the so-called "megafire" would ultimately claim their lives, as described by Annie Jacobsen.
The "megafire" would cover an area spanning hundreds of square miles. Jacobsen explains that living organisms could witness the immense blaze.
It turns out that only the residents of Australia and New Zealand might withstand a nuclear attack of such magnitude.
In some parts of the world, farming could still continue, providing a slim chance of survival. Meanwhile, places like the USA and Ukraine would be buried under snow. Additionally, the nuclear assault would so drastically harm the ozone layer that living underground would become essential, according to Jacobsen.
