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> And then again optimized thermonuclear weapons Here in Blighty, during the early cold war we built fall-out shelters and equipped a civilian force with "Gree

> And then again optimized thermonuclear weapons Here in Blighty, during the early cold war we built fall-out shelters and equipped a civilian force with "Green Goddess" fire engines to enable them to extinguish fires from nuclear flash. Yet this all stopped after development and adoption of the Hydrogen Bomb..... because unlike nuclear weapons (kT yield), trying to defend against thermonuclear weapons (MT yield) is pointless. This was a very real and honest defence policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Goddess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Goddess [In the UK, some younger people may recognise the Green Goddess Fire engine because they were seen during fireman strikes].

bsanr 5y ago
...Huh. On an EXTREMELY tangential note, I wish I'd known about this when I was drawing a political cartoon comparing California to a burning building which [redacted] was turning a "Green New Deal" ("Green Dream or whatever") fire engine away from. Tracing and recoloring a random US fire truck didn't quite have the same kick this would have.
CamperBob2 5y ago
Of course civil defense against the H bomb isn't pointless. In fact, the bigger the bomb, the larger the perimeter zone where survival becomes a matter of knowing how to react appropriately. "Duck and cover" won't work if you're too close to the fireball, but most people won't be.