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Times have changed. My high school science class took a field trip to the local Civil Defense office where we received training as radiological monitors. A moni

by chiph 5y ago

Times have changed. My high school science class took a field trip to the local Civil Defense office where we received training as radiological monitors. A monitor's job was to advise the shelter manager what the radiation levels were and when it'd be safe to leave. We had CD V-717 high-range meters for this, as they had a detachable ion chamber you could place outside. People inside the shelter would wear dosimeters (they looked like yellow cigar tubes) and we would record doses the wearer had been exposed to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_Geiger_counters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_Geiger_counters

retrac 5y ago
I suppose with my schooling in the 90s, I come somewhere between the two of you. Nuclear war was taken seriously. Came up many times. It could happen, it was a real threat, the history is important, and you ought to know why and how. But it was also extremely abstract. My teachers talked about their memories in the 50s and 60s. Works about the bombings in Japan were in literature. Nothing tangible. It was pretty fatalistic too. It probably wasn't going to happen, and seems less likely to happpen. But if it did happen there wouldn't be much after. I do remember my science teacher wondering, as if aloud to himself, if the windows in the classroom would offer meaningful UV shielding before they melted. It felt like it was in the immediate past, most of the time. In hindsight more of a cliffhanger than a resolution.
- chiph 5y ago
  The stockpiles got reduced, post-Soviet Union but not eliminated. The bombs didn't go away. China is building at least 2 new ICBM fields. They are a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty, but not any of the SALT treaties. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-09/news/new-chinese-missile-silo-fields-discovered https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-09/news/new-chinese-mis...

by chiph 5y ago

retrac 5y ago

I suppose with my schooling in the 90s, I come somewhere between the two of you. Nuclear war was taken seriously. Came up many times. It could happen, it was a real threat, the history is important, and you ought to know why and how. But it was also extremely abstract. My teachers talked about their memories in the 50s and 60s. Works about the bombings in Japan were in literature. Nothing tangible. It was pretty fatalistic too. It probably wasn't going to happen, and seems less likely to happpen. But if it did happen there wouldn't be much after. I do remember my science teacher wondering, as if aloud to himself, if the windows in the classroom would offer meaningful UV shielding before they melted. It felt like it was in the immediate past, most of the time. In hindsight more of a cliffhanger than a resolution.

chiph 5y ago
The stockpiles got reduced, post-Soviet Union but not eliminated. The bombs didn't go away. China is building at least 2 new ICBM fields. They are a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty, but not any of the SALT treaties. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-09/news/new-chinese-missile-silo-fields-discovered https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-09/news/new-chinese-mis...