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You don't need a nuclear war for all that to happen. As I once read in one defence publication, USA is only 4 biggest fertiliser complexes away from the famine
by baybal2 6y ago
You don't need a nuclear war for all that to happen.
As I once read in one defence publication, USA is only 4 biggest fertiliser complexes away from the famine, assuming the assailing party can blockade the country to prevent food importation.
The same is for the biggest oil, and fuel manufacturing complexes.
USA is also "just" 50 power stations away from the grid becoming useless. USA is though much, much better off than most countries on this, as its power generation is much more decentralised, thanks to largely private operation.
USA has domestic capacity to manufacture small, and medium sized turbines, but largest ones used in the superplants mentioned above are made by GE Energy in France, and some even in Japan, and China.
The same for big, top tier transformers for the grid.
- jonathanstrange 6y agoAdding to this, I recommend Lewis Dartnell's The Knowledge: How to rebuild our world after an apocalypse to anyone who hasn't read it yet. It's well-researched and, among other things, shows how much modern civilization relies on artificial fertilizers, crude oil shipments, and chemicals. A breakdown of world-wide shipping would have devastating consequences for most countries.
- DarkWiiPlayer 6y agoIIRC the EU is just a few cut powerlines on a windy day away from completely overloading and destroying most of the power grid.
- netflixandkill 6y agoOverloading, sure, destroying, no. I would bet millions of Euros there have been islanding plans in place for years in the event of wide scale disconnects or voltage/frequency collapse. The aftermath wouldn't be fun but most of western Europe at least would only be enduring planned rotating blackouts at worst.
- jjk166 6y agoIf we've gotten to the point that an adversary can and would effectively blockade the US, destroy its infrastructure, and effectively prevent it from being rebuilt for an extended period of time, then odds are we have bigger issues than famine to worry about.