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Rachel Lang
A recent study has revealed that you really want to be living in Australia if all-out nuclear war happens.
Experts have used Australia’s and Canada’s cataclysmic bushfires in 2019 and 2020 to emulate the after effects of a nuclear war and how that would impact global food production.
And, let's just say, you're going to want to come to the land Down Under.
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The study investigates the implications of nuclear wars scaling up from 100 warhead detonations through to a whopping to 4,400 and it found that Australia and a handful of other southern hemisphere nations would stand a chance to avert starvation.
That's if people survive the initial blasts of course, with the study estimating that roughly 360 million people would be snuffed out in that case.
But hey, if you survive that it's still going to be a tough run. The study predicts that in the two years afterward, an additional five billion people will have dropped dead from hunger.
The research goes on to calculate the impact on crops, livestock, and fish and other food production, estimating those who are still on the planet (probably those in Australia) would then exhaust food stockpiles in about a year.
In addition to the horrific death of everyone you know and love, each of the nuclear war scenarios would spurt millions of tonnes of soot into the atmosphere.
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Oh, and the soot would then go on to cool the planet, causing crops to fail and more survivors to waste away.
In the words of Brooklyn 99's Jake Peralta: "Cool. Cool, cool, cool."
"The scale of the resulting food shortages will depend on the amount of cooling, and changes in precipitation and surface sunlight, which are determined by the amount of soot lofted into the upper atmosphere," the study said.
But wait, there's more.. Global cooling would be about 14.8C... so, basically, it would trigger an ice age.
Love that for us.
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"Any nuclear weapon detonation that produces more than five teragrams (5 trillion grams) of soot is predicted to likely cause mass food shortages in almost all countries," the study claims.
This is when Australia really comes into its own, though.
Queensland University of Technology's Dr Ryan Heneghan, one of the researchers behind the study, told Crikey that Australia produces enough wheat to feed the population in a worst-case scenario such as this.
"Australia has enough food to be self-sufficient ... although while we can produce enough food for our own population, it's another question of being able to get it to major urban centres," he said.
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But, be prepared for refugees (or 'boat people', if you're a member of the Australian Liberal-National Party).
"If this scenario should actually take place, Australia and New Zealand would probably see an influx of refugees from Asia and other countries experiencing food insecurity," the study said.
It's terrible news though in the UK as the study said there was a 90 per cent chance of dying from starvation if nuclear war broke out.