To ask how long it will take to die if we do get nuked

[MagicalRealist]

Just this really. How quick? I know the warning, if there is one, will only be a few minutes so nowhere near enough time to get to school and be with DC. But when the bombs hit, is it just a flash of light and then oblivion? Or a longer scarier process? Obviously I hope none of this will actually happen.

What on earth would I write to my mp that would make a blind bit of difference?

Surely he isn't labouring under the assumption that we are cool with a nuclear attack?

At any given time Britain has three days of food.

Within a week we will eat our pets.

Within a month or two, cannibalism....roaming gangs of hunters.

What a cheerful thread for a miserable summer afternoon.

I have to say I'd rather be near the epicentre - living through the aftermath does not exactly sound enticing. We do have a basement and quite a lot of food in it so we'd survive a while provided the tin opener wasn't vapourised.

If anyone really wants to add to their misery try reading Children of the Dust by Lousie Lawrence and On the beach by Nevil Shute - you'll be stocking up on the cyanide before you're half way through the first one :(

This morning at just after 6 there was a loud chiming sound from my phone downstairs and the message "Missile from North Korea launched" then a second chime and message about 6:15 "Missile from North Korea launched. Take cover or evacuate to underground bunker". I am in North Japan. I didn't get up and read those messages on my phone until about 5 minutes later than that, when my usual morning alarm went off, cause I had thought the previous warnings were going to be about an earthquake (and we are sort of used to those). Checked the internet for news and at about 6:40 there were reports on main news sites that ballistic missile passed overhead and into sea. Most TV channels except NHK were stopped until then. We ate breakfast and went about our day.

There is a factual account of the events in Hiroshima, written in 1946 by a Japanese-American journalist. Here it is online on the New Yorker website to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing.

These are all real stories with real names.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima?intcid=mod-most-popular

I'm hoping that I fall into the small minority of people where the radiation turns me into a superhero rather than kills me.

Roaming gangs, made up of a hangry combination of the couple across the road who cheerfully clip their grass once a week, the man with the fierce dog, the PE teacher with her baseball bat and the retired golfing couple.

I was going to come and recommend the nuke bomb map. Ive found it strangely reassuring when I've bombed likely targets, and the blast radius wasn't as big as I feared it would be, even when using the biggest bombs that Russia ever possessed. Plus NK can't reach us. But, either way, the aftermath, yeah, that's never going to be good.

However, as PP the last thing anyone wants is nuclear war, it'll be M. A. D. No one wants it. I have to believe China or the UN will do something before it escalates that far. No one wants to nuclear war scenario, it'll be the end if us all

It depends on whether you get caught in the blast of the fallout. If you are in the blast zone it will be almost instant but otherwise radiation sickness can really drag on. Not sure why you're worry about this though. Much more likely to die some other way.

Thinking back to a couple of posts where people asked why aren't you engaged politically in trying to stop this rather than fret about it on here. It would be AMAZING if people in the uk did collectively put pressure on our government to keep us out of the North Korea thing. Basically to distance us from the USA politically.

Yes, I was once bitten by a radioactive hamster in a freak lab accident. Being able to carry a weeks worth of food around in my cheeks is ok, but they have me generating electricity 16 hours a day by running around in a large wheel.

NYconcrete - its amazing what hunger and desperation do. The couple across the road will cheerfully clip YOU. There's no need to worry about the dog as it will be eaten before it gets to you.. the baseball and golf club wielding individuals will have you offering up the last of your baked beans pretty quickly though

For all those worried about Trump and the nuclear button - don't worry - it's been fixed!
newsthump.com/2016/12/23/childproof-lock-added-to-white-house-nuclear-launch-button/

Also what scarletmonkey said - the blast radius was way smaller than I imagined.

It's not going to happen. The US military are already saying openly that Trump's a moron:

www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/08/why_james_mattis_viral_rebuke_of_trump_was_so_disturbing.html

I would worry if I was South Korean, though.

Hopefully there will be cyanide collection points - just incase

Prior history shows us it's all posturing.

It's not going to happen.
To control people, you use fear. You don't get to control anyone by wiping them all out.

I have absolutely zero survival instinct, or indeed desire to survive, when it comes to living in a world that's gone to shit. I have warned DH countless times when we're watching The Walking Dead that if there's an apocalypse of any description I'm taking the coward's way out.

Yes the cheerful suckers would seceter your fingers off for a bag of flour. The charity collectors would join in no problem.

listsandbudgets We studied Children of the Dust at high school. That was a cheerful book for a 14 year old. (In the late 90s, so really after the serious threat of nuclear war had passed.)

magical - well, you see, politics isn't about a one-off action. Trump isn't going to say "Oh MagicalRealist wrote a very sternly worded letter to her MP, so I'm not going to press the button". It's about collective action, building a movement, seizing the public discourse, campaigning and protesting - and it takes time! We all need to work together, constantly, to hold power to account and to make it clear that we do not support belligerent politics. You can make a difference, it just isn't an instant effect. Collapsing in a pathetic heap like a limp rag isn't going to help anyone.

I take comfort from the marvellously funny Tom Lehrer , his uplifting song from the 1960s now once again becoming relevant...

YABU we are not going to get nuked

Read Neville Shute's On The Beach.

I doubt very much this will happen but I can't help wondering. I'm 21 miles from Faslane, wonder if we'd be ok...
Threads given me the heebies, now have the image of me hiding under the stairs holding my 1yo 😱

Ikeadyounot I don't think I AM collapsing in a pathetic heap I'm just trying to look this situation (raised possibility of nuclear war) in the face rather than pretend it isn't happening.