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Does there exist any scholarship that argues that nuclear war could cause human extinction, or is this just a refutation of a sort of folk knowledge that "obvio
by Imnimo 6y ago
Does there exist any scholarship that argues that nuclear war could cause human extinction, or is this just a refutation of a sort of folk knowledge that "obviously" nuclear war could lead to extinction? The author engages a bit with the scholarship surrounding the idea of nuclear winter, which is nice, but reference to an argument in favor of the possibility of extinction, it's tough for me as lay person to judge whether the author is refuting the best case for extinction, or just a straw man.
- solveit 6y agoStraw man. Anyone who actually studies this for a living is well aware that nuclear war is very unlikely to lead to full extinction. But the popular impression is that nuclear war could lead to everybody dying. Partly this is because if you are Joe Average, the difference between everyone dying and you and all your friends and family dying is not very important.
- londons_explore 6y ago> if you are Joe Average, the difference between everyone dying and you and all your friends and family dying is not very important. I'm Joe Average. I don't want to die, but if I do, I'd like my family to survive. If they die too, I'd like my friends to survive. If they die too, I'd like people from my region/country to survive. If they die too, I'd like some humans to survive. If they die too, it would be nice if some primates or mammals or something warm blooded survived. My ranking of how much I care about something is almost directly the same as my genetic similarity to it, which I suspect is no coincidence.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]