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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (51191)	5/12/2014 4:19:53 PM
From: Eric	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

The eruption of Toba was beyond anything we've EVER experienced. It's believed that it was 100 times larger than any volcanic eruption ever recorded by man. It is believed that it dropped the temperature of the planet by 3-6 Celsius for a number of years, and actually made have accelerated the onset of the next glacial period. That's far more powerful than a "suitcase bomb" which would be a few thousand Kilotons, at most.. Again, I'm not saying that human life would survive (but I assume a few would).. But that Nature would recover and soon be thriving once again.. Nature is far more resilient than we fragile humans are.. Well the biggie is Yellowstone, who knows when. That one would take out the entire U.S. Unzip a caldera almost 100 miles across. Don't want to even think about it. St. Helens is warming up again. Experienced that one personally. Hopefully not again.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (51191)	5/12/2014 4:51:49 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

Wow, we could be lining up for a LOT of fun in the 21st century. Putin is sensibly flexing his atomic bomb muscles, to demonstrate that there is an end-game to USA encroachment in Ukraine and that it might be wise for the USA to consider more carefully the outcome if things are not sensibly civilized. It would be a good idea to pull Victoria Nuland and co off the job and leave it to adults to resolve the problem. The eastern Ukrainians are sensibly conducting votes to see how many want what. Voting is very cheap and sensible to do. The silly claim by the putsch ring-leaders in Kiev and in the USA is that the voting the other day was "illegal". It seems perfectly reasonable for people to have a vote if they want to do so. If I choose to conduct a vote across New Zealand or in part of it, and other people want to take part, that's up to me and them. We don't need permission from some so-called "authority" to have a vote and express our opinion. We might or might not then decide to do something about that expressed opinion. That part of it might be reasonably considered worthy of dispute, depending on what we do. Meanwhile, the centenary of the shot heard around the world is coming up in August. The war to end wars was under way. For decades, I hoped my lifetime would exclude me from the carnage throughout history since we were rapidly globalizing and there was no population Malthusian problem to resolve. But perhaps I'll yet see the most glorious of all wars, with more people killed and in a shorter time than ever before. Obama should do a nuclear war dance too, to show Putin that he's ready to go. Napoleon, Hitler, now it's Obama's turn to have a go at Moscow. Maybe the first shot could be in August, just to celebrate the centenary, then lead up to the main event for Xmas when the snow will be deepening around Moscow. NATO could go roaring in during January with remaining tanks to meet Russia's remaining tanks. With modern sound systems, the 1812 Overture could be played to everyone as they fire their artillery in time. Maybe Taupo and Yellowstone will erupt simultaneously during the crescendo. I can't wait to see it all, live on tv. Don't forget China. They won't want to be left out. They are skirmishing now in the South China Sea, readying for the opening curtain. France will have their force de frappe ready to go. Hollande doesn't look like much of a Napoleon character, being more interested in riding his motor scooter to see his girl friend than his stallion to the battle front. Here he is though, prancing around the region, stirring up trouble: english.rfi.fr Like 1914, 2014 could be a LOT of fun. Mqurice

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (51191)	5/13/2014 10:13:12 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 86355

Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "There is NO DOUBT that most of human life (and a good portion of other terrestrial life forms) will perish in a nuclear exchange."; LOL, link or lie. The bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki got about 250,000 fatalities each. There are something around 8 billion people on the planet. At the population density of those two towns to kill 4 billion people would require 4,000,000,000/250,000 = 16,000 bombs. And it might barely be possible to count up that many bombs total. But in a complete nuclear exchange most of the bombs would be targeted on military targets, not civilian. Most of the people in the US, China and Russia would survive. Before both world wars the authorities sometimes estimated that strategic bombing would kill the majority of civilians in major cities. Of course there were a huge number of tons of bombs dropped on cities in Germany, Japan and Britain but the death toll was tiny compared to the estimates. Humans aren't that easy to kill. It's like chemical weapons. The amount of mustard gas needed to kill a human is tiny. But in actual field conditions, the amount required turns out to be many tons. You obtain this figure by taking the number of tons of chemical weapons used in the first world war and dividing by the total number of fatalities. Same applies to small arms. The US military buys (and uses) 1.6 billion rounds of small arms ammunition per year. After five years of manufacture, the total human population should be dead. God knows how many 7.62 rounds are produced and yet the human race continues not only to survive, but to thrive. Humans just aren't that easy to kill. The calculations that conclude that humans are about to exterminate themselves from military weapons do not take into account how good humans are at surviving. To use 10 or 20,000 bombs to kill half the population you'd have to herd them into prearranged target points beforehand. -- Carl