Aliens attack! Nasty locust skull suckers with super tech built by slave worlds...

[Ecthy]

Total posts in this thread: 75

Lancer posts in this thread: 55

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
Total posts in this thread: 75

Lancer posts in this thread: 55

Well, it's his thread, he is supposed to defend it

[Lancer]

"Well, it's his thread, he is supposed to defend it "

Not only that, but it's my world, my nukes, my survivors (who are doing very well, thank you), my icecream, and when it comes right down to it, my locust skull sucking aliens.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by GePap


I will, having done something to hold back the hysteria.

I doubt at the very height of the cold war there were a combined 20,000 MT of nuclear bombs out there.

The proposition was to turn the Earth into a lifeless desert- in that case, the point would be to do as much damage to as wide an area as possible. So yes, in that example you are dropping bombs on unpopulated areas simply to destroy nature. We have some idea that even doing this would not leave the earth a lifeless desert. Certainly it would make it a much harder place to inhabit for human beings and most large animals, bu for life itself?

In an actual nuclear war, various locales would have been hit repeatedly and in ways to insure maximum destruction, so that the areas of total building damage somewhat overlapped. That would have meant the utter obliteration of large urban centers, with less damage to outlying areas than under the scenerio I posted.

Lets be clear- a total nuclear war would do horrific damage to human civilization. BUt lets cut the hyperbole about Planet Earth. Lets be thankful we still don't have the power to "blow it up".

You don't have to burn the majority of the surface of the panet to make it uninhabitable. What scientists towards the end of the cold war were afraid of was puting enough dust and ash in the atmosphere to block out enough sunlight to trigger a prolonged, planet wide "nuclear winter".

[Lancer]

"You don't have to burn the majority of the surface of the panet to make it uninhabitable. What scientists towards the end of the cold war were afraid of was puting enough dust and ash in the atmosphere to block out enough sunlight to trigger a prolonged, planet wide "nuclear winter"."

DrS, wasn't there a concern that we would blast away the atmosphere? Send so much air flying off into space that there wouldn't be enough to breathe?

[Zkribbler]

Troll Alert! Troll Alert! Troll Alert! Troll Alert! Troll Alert!

They come in ships and start blasting everything with ray guns, then sucking the brains of the dead as well as the living. They set up nests and start raising humans for brain food.

Sounds like the Bush Administration.

[Lancer]

"Sounds like the Bush Administration. "



Zkrib, we're trying to have a serious discussion about brain sucking locst aliens and saving the world and you bring up politics?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Lancer
"You don't have to burn the majority of the surface of the panet to make it uninhabitable. What scientists towards the end of the cold war were afraid of was puting enough dust and ash in the atmosphere to block out enough sunlight to trigger a prolonged, planet wide "nuclear winter"."

DrS, wasn't there a concern that we would blast away the atmosphere? Send so much air flying off into space that there wouldn't be enough to breathe?

No.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Lancer
"Sounds like the Bush Administration. "



Zkrib, we're trying to have a serious discussion about brain sucking locst aliens and saving the world and you bring up politics?

My bad. I should not have attempted to change the subject from brain-sucking locust aliens to something really discusting, like politics.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
You don't have to burn the majority of the surface of the panet to make it uninhabitable. What scientists towards the end of the cold war were afraid of was puting enough dust and ash in the atmosphere to block out enough sunlight to trigger a prolonged, planet wide "nuclear winter".

Well, its debatable whether that would actually happen. First, most smaller warheads probably don;t shoot stuff up high enough to get into the upper level winds. Again, you really need the very large nukes that can throw materials that high up. Now, all the urban fires themselves would add soot beyond whatever the nukes could get up there, but even then, you would certainly not make the planet uninhabitable. If that were so, life would have ended come the major asteroid hit 65 Million years ago. It obviously did not.

[Lancer]

"I should not have attempted to change the subject from brain-sucking locust aliens to something really discusting, like politics."

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by GePap


Well, its debatable whether that would actually happen. First, most smaller warheads probably don;t shoot stuff up high enough to get into the upper level winds. Again, you really need the very large nukes that can throw materials that high up. Now, all the urban fires themselves would add soot beyond whatever the nukes could get up there, but even then, you would certainly not make the planet uninhabitable. If that were so, life would have ended come the major asteroid hit 65 Million years ago. It obviously did not.

Tell that to your dinosaur friends!

Didn't that meteor come down in the sea? I wonder if the effects would have been much more severe if it had hit land?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by GePap
Well, its debatable whether that would actually happen. First, most smaller warheads probably don;t shoot stuff up high enough to get into the upper level winds. Again, you really need the very large nukes that can throw materials that high up. Now, all the urban fires themselves would add soot beyond whatever the nukes could get up there, but even then, you would certainly not make the planet uninhabitable. If that were so, life would have ended come the major asteroid hit 65 Million years ago. It obviously did not.

Bad example. That asteroid did make the earth uninhabitable for thousands of years.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Bad example. That asteroid did make the earth uninhabitable for thousands of years.

So according to you, life, after a multiple millenium extinction, decided to reevolve itself??

Its obvious you passed that AP Physics, NOT Biology, test.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


Tell that to your dinosaur friends!

Didn't that meteor come down in the sea? I wonder if the effects would have been much more severe if it had hit land?

It came down on a coast, so it got both sea and earth-really did not matter, the blast was big enough to throw up dirt from the land beneath the shallow seas- its not like it hit deep ocean.

The point is, that asteroid threw up more into the atmosphere than my 20,000 MT example would. Certainly large animals that need lots of food die out.

It is also not clear how long the dirt was up there. Millenia is highly unlikely.