Thanks for watching. I know this one was pretty serious, but the topic is serious. If you are truly concerned, consider taking/supporting political action.
Its time the clock hit 0. When the intellectuals refuse to recognize any of the good and can only regurgitate "orange man bad," I have zero faith that you are capable of solving this incredibly serious and complex issue of nuclear armament. This is not and will never be a left/right issue and will always be an issue of a lack of interest in the people.
Ironically, education is also what's needed to dispel this popular myth that nuclear war could lead to human extinction. Of course, having extreme emotional thoughts about such a destructive weapon is very human. But it is not rational.
@@zolikoff It has been scientifically proven that a large scale nuclear war would lead to the extenction of the human race. So education actually dispells your myth that nuclear war would not lead to extenction.
@@zolikoff if enough go off over a large enough area you could make acid rain falling on the whole surface of the planet. That's how many nukes we got. Most of them make Nagasaki look like a Kindergarden project.
@@zolikoff The known number of nuclear weapons in the world ( i am very confident in saying its a much bigger number then that ) is more then enough bombs to destroy this world over 600 times in a row.
It’s been mathematically proven that there are enough nuclear warheads not only kill mankind it would be the next mass extinction event that would send us back millions if not billions of years . This is literally unprecedented in all of known history it’s not even close man and the fact that you don’t understand that after watching this video urks me to the core
As an expat in Japan who has also been to Hiroshima, this is a warning that every global leader needs to keep in mind. The explosion was so hot that people's skin dripped off their bodies, they went blind instantly, and most of the buildings were obliterated. For an amazingly graphic example of this, check out "Barefoot Gen". It is hard to take in and you'll need a strong stomach at times, but it shows just how atrocious the aftermath was. Another scary example of how the world could have ended was with the 1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm Incident. One man, Stanislav Petrov, had to decide whether his screen showing 5 missiles was correct or not, and he decided not to push the button. Basically, one man saved the entire world from total annihilation.
Stanislav Petrov should be remembered more. The guy literally saved civilization from extinction. Without him, now we would be living in a Mad Max world.
Everyone forgets about Vasili Arkhipov, too. Look him up.. A soviet submarine required the senior officers to agree in order to launch a nuclear weapon, and Arkhipov was the only one of three to say "no." If it wasn't for him, an American aircraft carrier would have been nuked during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This just reminds me of Carl Sagan saying that the Cold War was just two guys standing knee deep in gasoline and one has 10k matches and the other has 20k matches.
Don’t forget the only reason they’re both in the gasoline in the first place is for dick measuring. People say there’s a lot of complicated reasons for war but bro, it’s /always/ dick measuring
@charleswest6372 I'm pretty sure that was the whole point of the comment. Everyone's in that gasoline, and everyone has matches that'll all go up all at the same time if anyone else's matches go up.
A moment of silence for Stanislav Petrov. Seriously, this guy deserves, *at least,* a holiday. And if you don't know his name, I urge you to look it up. This one man actually saved the world.
That happend/happens a lot. It's terrifying that the people who control the fate of the entire world aren't even elected officials, they're just rano military personnel.
It's 2020 and we're currently facing a worldwide pandemic but now Kyle suddenly reminds us of the constant threat of global nuclear annihilation. Talk about double the existential crisis.
@@glitchocity COVID: to infect the world without vaccination Nukes: to terrify people within all nations COVID: to denounce touching like handshakes and gestures of love Nukes: to extend our lunch capabilities to the stars above!
My dad was an ICBM silo commander in the 70s. One time he was interviewed by a British journalist who asked him if he would actually turn the key if ordered to. My dad said absolutely. He said there are guys who are stationed in missile silos who have no intention of turning the key if ordered to, and they're stealing money from the military for doing it. They're expected to do a job that they know ahead of time they will refuse to do. The journalist was aghast that my father said he'd turn the key without hesitation and asked him, "What about your family?!" He said, "If I get the order to launch, my family is already dead."
Foolish; he'd be the only guy turning the key and foolish because if yr own is gone there's no point destroying someone else's And foolish to assume someone else would. This is a race to the bottom, this is a race there's no point winning nor trying to win
@@mb106429 It's exactly as you said. If it was a real attack, then you're already dead and there's no point in killing the other half of the world. And if it was a false alarm, then you sentenced you, your people, and the other half of the world to death for nothing.
@@morefiction3264 The other guy has no way of knowing if you would launch or not. So he will expect the worst either way. Actually launching would make zero sense actually. You recieve your orders to launch, there's a chance that the attack is real but it can also be a false alarm. If it's real, you are already done for anyways and there's nothing you can do, so why launch? But if it's a false alarm then you'd be responsible for ending the world. What's the point of even taking that chance?
My father, who served in the Bundeswehr during the later years of the Cold War, recently told me about a saying that, according to him, was rather popular to describe the nuclear stalemate: Whoever shoots first, dies last
The most terrifying instance of how close we got to apocalypse for me is Able Archer 83, where the Soviets were convinced that a huge NATO exercise in Europe was a cover for a land invasion and, right when they thought it was going to happen, one of their satellites erroneously reported a US missile attack in progress (actually just sunlight bouncing off clouds). It literally got to the point where the satellite operator guy, one Lt Col Stanislav Petrov, was watching more and more reports of missile launches coming in, and was being asked whether the Soviet missiles should be launched in response. He reasoned that were a missile attack really in progress it would be thousands of missiles and not a handful - and it was that thought that means any of us are alive today. That’s how close we got.
You're actually conflating two different close calls, which occurred a mere two months apart (!) - the Stanislav Petrov incident occurred in September, while Able Archer 83 was in November. The world nearly ended twice in the same season.
There was also during the cuban missile event where the us fired depth charges at soviet submarines .... which were armed with nuclear missiles. Because that's an act of war the crew mistakenly believed that war just broke out and they should fire their missile and because of some guy they did not
I remember hearing a comparison of 9/11 to a nuclear detonation. On 9/11, a city was dealing with and caring for a little under 3,000 casualties. With a nuke, 3,000 or so survivors are dealing with a city worth of casualties.
Damn.......that is freaking terrifying. Though I think "casualties" in military use includes wounded? So the numbers would be different, with so many wounded on 9/11 and surviving. Nitpicking aside, the point still stands.
@@RocketDragons if you are specifically saying that it pales in comparison to what atrocities America has committed, you must remember basically every country has committed mass atrocities at some point in history, the most recent of which I could think of is the Turkish Genocide Of the Kurds
@@tomwithey711 I believe he read "we've" in the previous comment as "Americans" and was elaborating that we, as the human species, have done many many atrocities, not just the U.S. Which is true, but I can see why he would read "we've" as "Americans" instead of "we've" as "humanity". I hope this makes a little sense.
No music, no jokes, no A.R.I.A. You know how grave and dangerous the situation is, when an otherwise lighthearted science-guy cuts all the fun and fancy.
@@warbrain1053 Well, double edged sword of the positively antique state of America's launch equipment is that since it's so old, it can't connect to the internet, and so can't be hacked.
Other good near nuclear close calls include: When a USA radar base thought the rising moon (yes The Moon) was an incoming Russian attack. When the sun reflected just right on some clouds and the Russian nuclear missile warning system triggered.
And we are only alive today because there were people present who said "no, let's triple check that first" or "I know it's against protocol, but let's call the higher-ups for instructions - just to be safe".
This comment makes me wonder just as much as the video if USA and Russia are the right superpowers to have so many nukes, but at the same time if not them two other countries would. It's just sad to think about it and it's more sad that there are countries that don't even declare how many nuclear weapons they have right now...
I believe a flock of geese was once mistaken for an incoming bomber. From what I've read the effects of a nuclear winter are often overstated. Not good, terrible in fact, but overstated. Personally I think that humanity, as a species, would be really hard to kill off; there are almost eight billion of us now, and we have access to technologies such as canned food storage and indoor hydroponics which largely ensure that at least some people will be able to survive. Anything short of a runaway greenhouse effect or new snowball Earth will leave some survivors.
@@Hacker-pt3wm For radiation - not as bad as most people think it is. The radioactivity of any substance is more or less inversely proportional to its half-life; and nuclear fallout resulting from air bursts - as would result from a city strike - is relatively small. Ground strikes are primarily used for anti-force strategies, which as hardened targets also require high accuracy, and are typically based out in the country. Humans can tolerate low levels of radiation fairly easily; we just avoid it as the risks of cancer are relatively high. But by "high" we usually mean odds of one in a thousand, not one in two. Even if you pick the largest two thousand cities on the map of the USA, there are still quite a large number of sizeable towns left. You're also left with all the countries which are not nuclear targets; I doubt that anybody will be quick to nuke New Zealand, or Thailand, or Chad, or Ecuador. There's no doubt that a nuclear war would effectively destroy the major nuclear target countries but there is a lot of the world outside of those countries. The land area of the Earth is a bit over 500 million square kilometres. There are about 4000 warheads on Earth right now. That's roughly one every hundred thousand square kilometres. The nuclear winter and, yes, the radiation, would be terrible and the global population would be cut drastically. However, Homo Sapiens as a species once survived with around 3000--10000 individuals. To get that low again, we would need to kill 999999 out of every million humans on Earth. The Hiroshima bombing (admittedly a small warhead) killed less than half of the city's population. There would be major famine; crops all over the world would be drastically reduced, for a time. To do so badly enough to destroy humanity completely, I do not believe. We can store food; we can raise crops indoors, given the available energy. We have access to forms of energy (geothermal, wind, tidal) which would likely survive a war. We're really hard to stamp out. I can't see a nuclear war of the scale permitted by current weapon reserves doing it. A nuclear war in conjunction with bio-engineered plagues might manage it. I may be speaking unreasonably optimistically here, but I'm speaking from what I know of the science and the facts.
I wish when people talked about the bombs they didn't only mention the 80 thousand "instant" deaths. If you read accounts there's so, so much suffering, and a vast hellscape of horrendous, painful deaths from burns, radiation, and other injuries. Atomic bombs kill a lot more people in a much more terrifying ways in the days following the moment of the explosion.
I’ll mention one time a Russian nuclear submarine radar malfunctioned and they thought the US fired nukes. Thankfully, Russian nuclear submarines require both officers aboard to authorize the launch of a bomb, one of said officers rejected the authorization thankfully. Thing is he was removed from his position soon after like bruh just saved human life on earth
If a sub "launched" a bomb, they'd be seriously borked, sorry it made me think of flying submarines. Anyhoo, the Ohio class SSBN carries around 24 Trident II SLBM. Around 40 - 50% are MIRV capable meaning a single SLBM can strike 4 targets. Ohio class submarines are slowly being phased out into SSGN's. They will never be totally phased out, but it is a step in the right direction. Though China is the problem now and you thought Russians didn't care about their own citizens, China gives 0.000001 borks.
@@faisalaldan3420 Nah that wasn't from a radar malfunction, it was because the US was dropping practice depth charges, and the submarine thought they were real and that the war had already started. They're talking about a different thing.
Yeah and far as i remember He got pushed down by russian autorities and lived in poverty and was Not even mentioned to be called a Hero but instead a unwilling commrad that Just disobeyed Orders. "Funny" stuff If you think about it... Saving the world and being treated Like Shit...
@@GuySwords Yup! That's exactly it. But in my missile defense classes we learned all about him, why the anomaly happened in the first place, etc. Fun stuff
@@dirigibles4997 Let's not forget the time when USA's Early Warning System mistook the rising moon for an armada of incoming Soviet nuclear missiles. That one was a pretty close call too. Luckily the technicians realised the error just in the nick of time.
In the book “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, the author describes the future history of the world following a devastating nuclear apocalypse involving major fallout in the latter half of the 20th century, and speculates that humans once again develop and deploy nuclear weapons when they finally work their way out of the dark ages again. At the end of the book, over 18 centuries after the first time, competing blocs of nation-states once again initiate a new nuclear apocalypse, having failed to learn from history.
There was a short story I vaguely remember studying for English class at primary school ~30 years ago. It briefly followed three generations of a family during and after a nuclear war - the first generation as a girl and her family trying to survive the initial fallout, the second her children trying to deal with the long term health issues from the radiation exposure, and the third with the original girl as an old woman and one of the last 'true humans' in their little mutant tribe, trying to describe what life was like when she was a young girl. While a lot of the effects are things that wouldn't actually happen in a real nuclear exchange, it is still rather chilling to realise how fragile modern society is.
@@jonathant8575Society dies, but no recorded mutations from radiation have actually been recorded. Pictures and reports of mutations out of Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Fukushima are not reflected by the data collected in all these cases; the rate of mutations in nuclear-affected births has never been higher than the surrounding non-irradiated population. It's a crappy sci-fi staple that is more akin to glowing in the dark if you get too irradiated.
It wouldn't happen outside of fiction. The first nuclear apocalypse would also be the last. It would be the end of humanity. We're talking about extinction.
Yogi: Hey, Boo Boo, let's go get some pic-a-nic baskets! Boo Boo: But what about Ranger Smith, Yogi? Yogi: Fuck Ranger Smith. Let him get his own pic-a-nic baskets!
The only aircraft scrambled were interceptors. They were armed with nuclear air to air weapons designed so one interceptor can take out entire formations of incoming bombers. You know what happens when interceptors don't find enemy bombers? Absolutely nothing. The interceptors return to base, the crews change their underwear and they carry on their businesses. Even if bombers had been launched there would have been plenty of time to recall them.
I live in Finland. We've been officially neutral since WWII. I remember seeing a list of nuclear targets in the former USSR that the US would've nuked. Some of them were very close to us, for example Tallinn in Estonia. The calculated fallout was such that Finland would've become uninhabitable, despite not actually being on the list of targets. The point is that there are no winners in a nuclear war. No-one is safe. The lucky ones get vaporized in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately the reality of superpower relations is such that no-one wants to even be perceived as putting down their weapon first. It's truly a balance of terror.
Very true. The fact that there will be no winners just doesn't seem to really sink in for the people in charge. That is why the weapons should never have been created in the first place. It disgusts me and it was my idiot country who built them and used them first. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Morality and a sense of preservation of humanity and all life on Earth should have been more highly valued. We inherited a legacy we never wanted. Many people at the time didn't want it. Those who actually understood how awful it was. Many of the people that worked on it's creation regretted it. As they should! They ought to have thought it out and considered long term beyond them and WWII. The bombs were not even necessary to end the war which makes it so much worse. They try to tell you they were needed but they were not. Many military people and politicians at the time knew they were not necessary and said so but President Truman and whoever else wanted to use them. American arrogance at it's finest. Nothing to be proud of.
I was until recently an officer on the Ohio Class Ballistic Missile Submarine USS Nevada. On that submarine I stood Officer of the Deck and was a member of the EA teams. The officers that decode the Emergency Action Messages that potentially have launch orders in them. I say all of that to lend some credibility to the fact that an accidental launch in any imaginable scenario has been thought about and has a measure in place to stop it. Really multiple measures. So it won't be the US accidentally launching. The India, Pakistan situation now that is scary.
We had a 1sq called away on my boat during Sunburned Chicken. Didn’t hear the obligatory “this is the captain this is an exercise” for roughly ten seconds. I don’t know why he neglected or forgot to say it, but during those ten seconds everyone in maneuvering looked at each other with increasing anxiety and horror. A flood of immense relief arrived when he finally rushed through saying it over the 1MC. He apologized to the crew after we did our drills. I was on the HMJ. Glad to be out, grateful to be unfazed by long hours and corporate red tape in my career. Hope you are doing well, I enjoyed working on the Nevada at 51 on the pier. Always a good crew.
@bluestoneamps4716 I'm not sure how far back you served, but if building 730 wasn't tied to the pier, then a hot minute (haha, that shot across the bow was in good fun). They started to be called celestial chickens lol.
"One of the things that keeps me up at night is the number nine hundred and nineteen. It's the number of tactical nuclear missiles around the globe on high alert status - - kept ready to launch at a moment's notice. It was nine hundred and twenty last week, but a corroded fuse snapped in one Tuesday, rendering the warhead inert. Its owners haven't noticed yet. But I was up. So I noticed." - Superman, 'Superman: Unchained' issue #6
@@talismanstryke6692 yup. I wasn't surprised reading that part. His writing is so technical that it would've b3ensuper reckless for him to write that story. Haha
True, but going into every situation with a drawn gun is a recipe for a violent end. And when violence does break out, fewer guns means fewer corpses. More importantly, nuclear weapons are totally different in scale and precision than mere firearms.
@@corvuscallosum5079 doesn't need to be drawn. Just the presence of it in the holster can keep the other guy from taking advantage of you not having one.
@@BeigeYeti12345 This is the whole idea behind Mutually Assured Destruction, which is, well, madness in itself. It's sad that average 'muricans really believe in peace through stalemate like this. Nuclear war is truly inevitable.
Maybe he's referring to a future President whose actually objectively awesome like Abraham Lincoln type guy? (Well I'm sure the South hated him but whatever) Then again that's probably hard to find someone who wouldn't abuse that kind of power, you can afford to drop your morals if you hold an entire Country in your hands and all these nukes that can end the entire Human Race all at your word. At that point much like the Mafia/Mob/Bratva you're so untouchable you can probably get away with doing anything as long as no one can prove it.
@River Piscean its like rounding up everyone in every building in every country and putting a bullet in every third person's head. In under 10 seconds. And then the rest die from illness
Virginia Brat I would like to point out that the nuclear winter described in the video? That’s only after 100 nuclear weapons are detonated at once. As mentioned, over 13,000 nuclear weapons exist in the world. If any major country gets involved in a nuclear war, you can bet that they have a lot more than the minimum 100 bombs. The only chance you’d have at only having 100 weapons launching is if two small countries decide to wipe each other out of existence, and no other countries interfere. Even then, it’s possible that those countries could have more than 100 weapons combined. A nuclear winter where 1 in every 3 die is practically the best case scenario if a nuclear war starts up, anywhere in the world.
Thank you for posting this. Growing up during the Cold War this is a fear we all had. Younger generations need to understand that this single topic is more important than any other for the survival of our species.
I grew up during the tail end of the cold war i have the same sentiment as you. Im hoping the new Oppenheimer movie will reawaken the same feeling in younger generations.
@Virtual Sky Tate yeah, it sounds really weird. It is oddly correct though. Just an archaic usage of the words. I guess that's what happens when you quote translated scripture.
This is why when I picked where I live in my city I made sure that I would be in the "fireball" part of a nuke if one went off. With luck I'll just die instantly.
@Kyaru Momochi idk probably cause its total horseshit. No person but the most fear-addled doomer would even give that more than a passing thought when choosing where to live, let alone making it one of their main requirements.
“Nuclear arms race is like two men in a pool up to their waists in gasoline arguing over who has more matches” Carl Sagan, I think. Opponents in the nuclear arms race each have enough to thoroughly destroy the Earth. What the hell difference does it make if one can destroy the Earth 10 times over and the other can do it 11 times?
honestly i see three ways this ends 1. nuclear weapons are destroyed forever 2. another cold war 3. nuclear Holocaust also if a cold war happens these are what would happen 1. it ends and where back to the original options 2. nuclear Holocaust
So admittedly I had to use Google but according to the math a teragram is technically more than a megaton. Teragram = 1,000,000,000,000 grams Megaton = 1,000,000 tons Ton = 907184.74 grams 1,000 Megaton = 907,184,740,000 grams which is almost 93 million grams or over 100,000 tons less than a teragram Hope this doesn't come across as snobby or a know-it-all, I definitely used Google for help, just was curious and bored enough at home to want to look it up lol
@@KingTen91 That would be the imperial ton and mega is an SI-prefix, you dont use that in front of imperial units. The metric ton is exactly 1000kg or 1.000.000 gramms.
@@rtg5881 ohhh, lol I didn't think of that 😅. This is good example of why you don't act like you know what you're talking about if you know you don't, especially on the internet, someone else might actually know and you're left looking foolish haha. Thanks for correcting me tho, now I know 🤙
Like some high IQ dude said... "I don't know which weapons will be used in World War 3, but World War 4 will definitely be fought with sticks & stones." - you know who
I'd like to see Project Orion restarted so we can finally do something beneficial with nuclear weapons technology. Also, the story of Stanislav Petrov really needs to be told more often. We ALL owe our lives to that man because he decided not to react to a false alarm that would have triggered world war 3. It's an important lesson in restraint when the fate of the world is at stake.
From the title and thumbnail, I thought this was going to be about how history ended in archeological terms in 1950, because that's the rough estimate of when we'd put enough radioactive material into the atmosphere that radiometric dating becomes too inaccurate.
@@starmorpheus It is, but not with things found on the surface. Dig just a little bit and the slightly heightened background radiation no longer has a meaningful impact.
@@adgarbault: I have no idea what that means or is supposed to mean, I just know it sounds funny. Have an updoot. P.s. Is it a reference to John Dies at the End?
Call me crazy, but isn't everything he says here super super obvious and everyone has been talking about this since literally the beginning of the Cold war? Am I missing something?
"All of you watching have lived every second of your lives under threat of the end of human history." I think my grandmother is the only person I know for whom that is not true, as she was a young teen at the end of WWII. And she told me one time, that even though she fully believed it was necessary to drop the bomb to end the war, "I wish they hadn't dropped the bombs. I don't think the world has been safe ever since."
@@kolinmartzexactly. I believe ww3 talk is fear mongering. Plausible? Sure. Likely? Probably not. Dare I say I believe Putins and Kim Jung uns antics are merely smoke and mirrors and politicaly driven.
It would not be safe whether they were dropped or not. The knowledge and technology is there. If you were a teen at the end of WW2, your live would have been under threat soon enough.
You walk into a house with two families. If you take everything on the surface: - They both love their own families very much and will do what it takes to protect them. - They have weapons that will take the other family out if one family decides to attack them. - They're amicable to each other but there have been mistakes that made things look...bad. (Dog tried to climb over the fence, thought it was the neighbor). Your goal is to disarm both families that have weapons pointed at each other in the name of protection. Who puts down their weapons first? How do you know who can be trusted? Yeah, the one family put their weapon down but they *might* have a weapon buried in the back yard. (Hopefully the dog doesn't dig it up. Or one of their children doesn't tell the other family they have one and it was supposed to be secret but the child thought it was for the best of the world and they can always live (defect) at the other family's place. Nuclear disarmament looks and sounds easy, but I cannot imagine being the one that has to rely on the kindness of monsters - the same monster that would use a weapon like a nuke against millions of lives. It's also disheartening to know that I am that monster.
the only thing that reliably protects you from nuclear weapons is the awareness of the guy with the trigger that 10 minutes after he pushed the trigger he will die because the other side did the same in retaliation... as long as a single nuclear missile exists having your own will be the only valid way of protecting yourself from it. MAYBE if some alien race suddenly gifts the entire planet a 100% reliable system that can counter nuclear ICBMs we might get rid of them because they wouldnt pose a threat to anyone anymore. but you know when a sentence starts with "if an alien race gifts" then its not very likely... at least we got to the point where they only stockpile enough for one total destruction of the enemy instead of the arms race of who can destroy the entire world more often...
Its stupid, all of it is idiotic. We should never retaliate with nuclear weapons, but the threat still needs to stand. Let it be a empty threat, let one family die so that at least human history goes on. We sadly, and regrettably cannot sooth the fears of the other, but if we die, let them grow, live and thrive. Let our death not be in vain.
A possible way to solve this is to create a culture of peace. The EU did that. The key goal was to intertwine economies of its member countries in a way that would make a war impossible, with the goal of slowly becoming a federal super state. The former arch enemies France and Germany have put and still put a lot of effort into coming to terms with the atrocities commited during the wars, and became the closest allies in the process. In such a situation, neither side feels the need of having nuclear weapons pointed at the other, or even even having a military at all.
@@faultier1158 i think germany and france are a bad example for this, because they share a border with each other... but guess what: nuclear fallout gives a shit about borders. so nuclear weapons are only an option for nations which are far enough apart that their own bombs wont cause massive problems in their own countries. canada and mexico dont have to be afraid of the american nuclear arsenal, because any bombs dropped in one of these countries would lead to massive problems in the USA. and in europe distances are far smaller than in north america.... germans dropping a nuclear bomb on france would be like lighting your neighbors house on fire when your house shares a wall with your neighbors.
@@TheScarvig Germany doesn't even have nuclear weapons, so that wasn't the point anyway. My point was about how a culture of peace leads to demilitarization, which also affects nuclear weapons.
I'm old enough to remember when back in the early 80s, here in the UK, our government distributed a pamphlet to every household. This pamphlet was called Protect And Survive, and it's graphical style resembled a cross between the ubiquitous airline safety leaflet, and a flat pack wardrobe instruction booklet, depicting calm serene looking people taking shelter inside a homemade shelter consisting of little more than a door laid on its side behind a sofa. A lot of parents, mine included, intercepted the ones that came to their houses before they could alarm their kids, but they started to appear in schools and other public places. I was still a young boy at the time, but I was bright enough to understand the ramifications of nuclear war and the concept that a government wouldn't go to tne expense of sending such a pamphlet to every household if the possibility of a nuclear attack wasn't a reality. I remember asking my dad if there was going to be a nuclear war, and he genuinely couldn't reassure me that there wouldn't be. Thinking back, how could he when he was old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis, and life became very scary for a few years as the cloud of an imminent nuclear war loomed all to realistically. So tangible was this existential threat, that the very culture of that time was saturated with references to nuclear holocaust. Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood was an anthem of the period, and movies like The Day After and Threads pretty much convinced us all that those killed under the mushroom clouds would be the lucky ones. They were very dark days indeed.
So the government in the UK thought hiding behind a door would be safe from a nuclear attack? Sounds about right. Here in the US, it used to be duck tape and plastic to put around the windows, then hide under a table.
@@Blueknight1960 If you're far enough from the center of the blast that the shockwave won't instantly collapse the building you're in, the next biggest concern is flying glass shards from all of the windows getting blown inward, so hiding behind sturdy furniture is not an unreasonable suggestion. If you're closer to the blast than that, it doesn't really matter what you do.
As an aging GenXer, I recall how in Los Angeles in the 1970s we used to have monthly siren tests and bomb drills where we ducked and covered around the perimeter of the class room. (We ducked under our desks for the earthquakes!) We were also sent home with a booklet about how to avoid fallout and radiation poisoning like described in the UK. After learning what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I figured the best thing to do if the sirens went off was to be outside and be vaporized instantly. Cheerful childhood Cold War memories!
@@Blueknight1960 It actually wasn't for protection, it was so when everything cleared up they'd be able to find bodies more easily. It's the same reason at one stage the UK advised their people to put on potato sacks: it wasn't for protection, it was so your body was pre-packaged for removal and disposal if and when the powers that be came through and cleaned up. There really *was* no way to protect against a nuclear strike, so... may as well give some people some hope and a little practicality in the event it wasn't the end of the world, right?
All I have to say about Hiroshima / Nagasaki is that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was correct in what he said after the attack on Pearl Harbor. "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
@@royisabau5i’m sure that when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they also didn’t care about killing innocent civilians. It doesn’t make it right what either side did, but really, did they expect the U.S. to just take a hit like that and walk away scot-free? And they (the Japanese) had no intent on stopping (the fighting) either, so the U.S. made a decision to stop for them.
This reminds me of a story from russia at the height during the cold war, where many missiles were detected on a radar coming to russia, and one man was in charge of sending missiles back, but he didnt, he thought it was a false alarm, and it was, it was just. just the one gut feeling from one man saved us
That story also had a sibling. The B-59 Nuclear submarine incident. Where a Soviet submarine near Cuba lost communication and US attempts at getting the submarine to surface for ID via signalling depth-charges was mistaken as an attempt at destruction. This caused the submarine to be running away in panic of war having begun and was on the brink of following through with protocol and launch its T-5 Nuclear Torpedo. The only reason it didn't go through, was a unique circumstance in the form of Vasily Arkhipov, a high ranking executive officer who was given equal power to the captain and political officer. So instead of only the latter two like normally (who voted in favour of launch). This submarine also needed Vasily's approval and he steadfast refused to authorize and managed to convince the others to wait for communication. Effectively preventing war again on a gut feeling. What made it even MORE of a insane scenario. Vasily was a deputy commander during the K-19 Accident. Where a nuclear submarine almost underwent a catastrophic meltdown if it wasn't for the crew risking (with numerous sacrificing) their lives to prevent it. It is believed his role in that was how he managed to convince the others not to fire.
This video was like an odd blast from my own past. When I was 17 or 18 years old (13-14 years ago), I was laying in bed one night listening to music on headphones and nearing sleep when I had the sudden realisation you've just described. I even remember the exact song that was playing at the time. It was like something just subconsciously snapped together in my brain, and for the following 6-12 months I became just the most inconsolable wreck of extreme paranoia and anxiety. I was afraid to look out of windows or at the horizon or sky, every little sound and sudden change in the level of light outside terrified me, and I would see mushroom clouds in my nightmares basically every night. A very rough period for me, but thankfully I did eventually learn to live with it and build up a resistance - though I am still very aware of the threat and still occasionally have the nightmares...
It's called Impending Doom. A lot of hospice patients go through it in the months/weeks/days/hours before they Pass. There's nothing that can be said that takes away the fear or morbid fascination/fixation. If it happens, it happens. Nothing can change it once it's been done. We just have to trust our Leaders not to do something impossibly stupid. Trouble is, I don't. Not at all. Either side. America has the better missile defense system but that won't matter with the ones that have 20 warheads inside 80 decoys. What 'got me over' my Absolute Fear was a dream where a single Alien aircraft invaded & went from fighting 3 AF pilots to hundreds in less then 5 minutes & then one of the Fighters used a nuke (or was destroyed by the UFO, doesn't matter for what comes next) so 1 became 3 & then the world exploded in a wall of pure white fire while I watched & despaired. I heard that we are 130 seconds to Midnight Defcon 1. Be happy we're here today. Hug your family & enjoy your dog walks. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Thyroid cancer & Parkinsons Putin going insane/senile doesn't help in the slightest. B@stard is a joke but he has 1 of 3 buttons that can start WW3.
a gamma ray burst could hit the earth and wipe out all complex life instantly, and we would have no way of detecting that it was coming. It would reset earth back to the precambrian. have fun with that information.
@@fordprefect859 I know this well, among many other similar threats. They never did bother me much, even less so since the event I described. I appreciate the heads-up though, thanks~ :3
I have several "conspiracy theorist" friends that need to hear something exactly like this, and now I have a way to possibly get through to them. Thank you, so very much.
I think there is a good balance between questioning things “including the govt” and full blown conspiracy theory. Not that I think its bad to question everything, but it is not safe mentally.
Unlikely, confirmation bias will probably keep them from looking at evidence particularly when voiced by a "political opponent" (assuming your friend is something other than a liberal leaning democrat). Give it a go but don't be surprised if "agree to disagree" is the only option
Yeah if your friends are "conspiracy theorists" or in other words conservative they'll know this kid is no where near as smart as he sounds and more importantly we are in the position we are in because China wants to fight. They're actively, openly, and aggressively seeking to conquer the world. You can tell this whole thing is meant to insinuate that the world is scary right now because of orange man bad. It's not "confirmation bias" or "conspiracy theories" it's called being educated. I'll be honest I'm only a few minutes in to this video but it's just history and an underlying fear. I just listened to a true historical thing this morning that included the speech the president gave that day we dropped the first bomb. Oh also Russia isn't the enemy.
A documentary I saw mentioned a case where a Russian soldier saw what looked like missiles on a radar He thought about issuing a reply with missiles But thought about it and thought it was probably a glitch He was right It's weird how close we've gotten to ending everything
@@warped_rider No I can't remember the name It was on TV here on channel 4 They just did the countdown on the most likely ways the world could end If I find it I'll put the name here Also think Today I Found Out did a video about it
The reason he thought it qas a glitch was because it was only a small number of missiles. If a war between Russian and the US would start, they would probably send dozens at the same time. Glad he was right and not just a pawn in an elaborate mind game.
@@rafaelfermin4619 Vasiliy Arkhipov is another person we can thank for saving the world. During the Cuban missile crisis his sub was nearly hit by depth charges dropped by an American ship tying to signal them to surface and they thought all hell had broken out on the surface and that they were under attack. Their orders were to respond to any attack with nuclear torpedoes. The captain and political officer wanted to launch the nukes. Arkhipov thought they should surface and see what was going on before potentially inciting WW3.
When my dad was in the Air Force he had to call in a Bent Spear once. He was base security, and was on watch along with a few more airmen, standing guard on nuclear-equipped aircraft. Two of the others on guard were tossing a ball back and forth to each other. Because it's freaking *boring* on watch, and 'ya gotta keep your mind engaged, or risk missing important things. Well, one of 'em missed the catch. And the ball bounced into the intake of the aircraft. It wasn't on, so there wasn't any damage or anything. It would've been just a few seconds to reach in and pull it out. But my dad saw a lower officer walking out of a building, watch the ball go in, and walk *right* back inside. So. Dad did the only thing he could do: Pre-empt the narc, by the book. So he called it in. It was a BIIIG shit-show. And the only thing that saved my dad's ass was that his photographic memory let him spout off the specific regulation he was following, down to page and paragraph.
It's...pretty bad when any US military nuclear incidents get called. Like, the President is called every time one occurs. Which, in the military, is kinda like the Eye of Sauron looking *directly* at you. ...Except every look is filtered through several *additional* layers of angry Eyes, all the way down through the Chain of Command.
@@xxmegazocker9894 the ball could be viewed as an attack on the armed aircraft or retrieving the ball would look like sabotage. Reporting it first meant that security forces were asking him for the details vs a random witness who may believe that they could get promoted for snitching.
@@bartroberts1514 Arguably, that makes it more and more secure by the year. Good luck finding a drive this side of a junkyard. Plus, it's hard to sneaker-net stuff out when your file takes a shoebox.
Incoming wave of dipshits swooping in and bein' like "He understands everything more than you, BRO. Donny-T's playing 4-D chess, BRO. You're just to dumb to see it wearin' those ineffective masks, BR-cough... cough cough.... huh. I got somethin' in my throat. it's probably nothing."
1:29 if i recall correctly even Einstein was left depressed knowing that his findings contributed to the creation of nuclear weapons. Ernest Rutherford had he been alive probably wouldnt have been to happy either im guessing.
Einstein before his death called his letter to the president, urging the US to make the atomic bomb before Germany could, his greatest mistake. He said had he known the nazi's would fail to create the weapon, he would have done nothing. Meaning he would've died before mentioning the possibility to anyone. Einstein called the cold war arms race before the end of WWII, he knew the weapons would be stockpiled if invented by every country on the world.
That intro... Man. That is how you do an intro to such an important topic. Excellent video, Kyle. As always. Cheers. Edit: Also, love the format for this video. On point.
If said mouse had the intellect to DO so... And a sneaky neighbor mouse had been stealing his winter food stores... Maaaaybe we would be seeing the first mouse made & patented murder device.
My old man used to sleep on top of the Polaris II's in subs during Vietnam, and (gulp) the Cuban missile crisis. 😬 He was the head nuclear missle tech. He died with the secrets he kept, but of the 16 years he was in my life I know this... We were locked, loaded, and ready to end the world. The Capt. over the intercom specifically said there was only one way out, by having "nothing happen." If we won, we lost. Be prepared to leave everything behind, and come back to nothing. (Reference to Cuba) Also, we (the Navy) are everywhere, all the time. Esp where (we) are not supposed to be. We're always there. Even before (they) didn't want us to be "there." He passed from compilations from a bone marrow cancer (hmmm... 😶) and lived a simple life as a diesel truck mechanic for a landscaping farm before that. Anybody who knew him always said he was a silent and humble giant, and could do/fix/repair anything. I mean anything... ...always makes me wonder what exactly he experienced...
I can vouch for what Jay says about his dad. 6 years as a Fire Control Technician (simply put, the guy that presses the launch button) on a ballistic missile sub in the 1980s. Given the order, we'd have had all 16 ICBMs, each with 14 independently targeted 40 kiloton warheads, in the air in under 22 minutes from a cold start. We wouldn't have hesitated to launch. It's how we were trained, it's how we were drilled. Time to think come before or after, but not during. No increased deaths from it in my generation of submariners, however. Better shielding, I guess. But I did not know a single submariner that ever had a male child **while** serving on board a missile sub (I have two lovely daughter, myself).
My dad served in the Canadian air force during the cold war times as a radar technician and he built part of the DEW line, and he told me more then 'just a few' horror stories. Every day I wake up is a breath of relief.
The bigger thing is that advisors should be scientists, not politicians. For example, Trump basically just does whatever the first advisor he encounters suggests. Meanwhile, the one's who are qualified for their position (like Dr. Fauci) aren't politically motivated.
Well... you'd kind of need to replace all "presidents" simultaneously, and then convince all those nations to not develop something equally destructive (or more destructive). For instance... bacteria that consume plastic rapidly and replicate quickly... kind of a less severe grey goo scenario. Or just simple biologic weapons. Otherwise the one country that keeps the nukes wins.
I'm a GenX fan who remembers the balance of terror of the Cold War. My 14-year-old watched this video, and afterwards, we pulled out my old copy of The Day After, with Jason Robards, Steve Guttenberg, and John Lithgow, about the destruction of Kansas City and the United States. He was engrossed by the movie and the despair of a meaningless end of civilization. The Day After is a movie that everybody should see or see again.
What's confusing to me is how many people are here in the comments reacting to this video as if he is out here providing cutting edge information. It's frankly frightening that so many people have lived their entire lives, unaware of the concept of potential nuclear annihilation. I feel confused, like maybe there is something I am missing. Does he discuss anything here that hasn't been totally common knowledge for literally 3/4 of a century?
@@TheMfmccarthy Tbh most people aren't completely terrified of everything around them like we are. They just don't think about that sort of thing. Must be nice.
When I was a child of about 8 or 9 years old (I'm 72 now) the preacher at church, before his sermon, started telling the congregation about a new nuclear peace treaty between the United States and Russia. I felt like a 200 pound weight was lifted off my shoulders .... until he added the word ... "but ..." ...
If an alarm goes off and the only thing launched are interceptors, regardless of what those interceptors are armed with if no opposing bombers are found, nothing happens. The interceptors are recalled, and return to base and everybody changes their underwear.
One thing I'd like to talk about that I read a couple years back: the U.S. government actually runs through this kind of simulation with each incoming president shortly after they take office. During the Cold War it was done almost religiously; the president would board Air Force One or whatever plane was being used at the time, and they would tell the president that full nuclear war was beginning. The Russians had launched a full scale nuclear attack on the United States, and it was now the president's decision whether or not to retaliate. The presidents knew it was fake; it was a test to see how they would respond in this situation. Because make no mistake, as Kyle has pointed out for us this is a very real threat that could happen at any given moment, and the President should have an understanding of what that means, and have time to grapple with the gravity of this decision. In every single administration, the president never pushed that button. They never gave the order to retaliate. U.S. military officials were actually rather alarmed about that particular fact getting into the hands of the Soviet Union, as they knew the MAD doctrine depended on the U.S. being willing and able to use the full might of its nuclear arsenal. We live in really strange times, and have an even weirder president than we've ever had in living memory. Not to take away from what Kyle has warned us about, but its interesting to note that the greatest nuclear power in the world, when put to the test, has always blinked.
If you remember or wouldn’t mind, I would very much like to read that same thing. I personally believe you and I would like to have the source first hand if you have it.
Let's not forget Stanislav Petrov who also did not retaliate when he was given false alarm reports(faulty machinery) that the US was committing a nuclear attack.
Kyle, I think you would enjoy the channel "Rare Earth". It's produced by Colonel Chris Hadfield, hosted by his brilliant son Evan, and wrangled by Evan's wife, Kata. Horrifying stories presented in the most beautiful way possible.
Thank you for this cold, hard reminder that the ground on which we walk is frail, uncertain, and not promised to anyone. We hang on the edge of the end here. We gotta be more thoughtful going forward.
My dad used to work on the roads of missile silos. The military moves the missiles around every so often they even had the right at some point to shoot on sight if you aggravated or passed the fence line.
Man, I’ve gotta give you credit Kyle, the way this was shot gave this a lot of weight. No music, just natural audio, natural visuals, and pure facts. Sure, I’m now anxious as all heck, but frankly... I should be.
Well, if there is no nuclear war and you invest in stocks, you’ll likely be better off financially in the long run, and if there is nuclear war, you’re dead either way so it won’t hurt you extra if you do invest, so..?
And yet the current president has been remarkably better at staying out of armed conflict with other nations than any other president in my lifetime, going back to Reagan.
Tom Ralls To an extent this is true, mainly due to circumstance however... Trump has done things that seem "good" in terms of keeping us out of war, like pulling soldiers out from the Turkish border... however that action, much like others, destabilized the region in such a way that it will eventually cause more conflict, and more American lives lost, and that's not to speak of the problems such a decision created for the people of that region.
@@tomralls1781 He also pulled out of a deal that keeps Iran from increasing their nuclear stockpile, I'm sure from watching the video I shouldn't have to tell you more nuclear weapons isn't a good thing.
"WWIII was almost started by accident." Yeah, I've heard all those stories. "A bear climbing a fence nearly caused a nuclear holocaust." Wowsers! Never heard that one before.
I have always tried to vote for sanity....I am 60 this month, and really tired of the Nuclear Threat. I remember grade school, fire alarms were also earthquake alarms and Nuclear alarms. We joked about bending over to kiss your ass goodbye. Cuz that is all you can do. Kyle taught me about cement walls or brick walls to hide behind, all you can do, right? I will vote for disarming ICBM's too....wish us luck.....
As an IT professional, I no longer fear nuclear war. I fear cyber war. The ability for a country to control key systems (including defense systems, power, water, shipping, and transportation) as well as the ability to control messaging to citizens of that country through social media, making free thought and debate obsolete. Look around. Everyone is staring at a screen. Everything is "internet enabled". It's going on right under your nose...and you're paying for it.
don't worry man... I mean, yeah, you're 100% right but like, who even cares when we already know that in ten year tops something even worse will come up? the world's been ending since as long as I can remember so just like, I live everyday like it's the last because I've been living on borrowed time since the day I was born
@@npc6817 cyber war is as terrible as a chemical, biological or nuclear war. It is truly in the weapons of mass destruction, yet it has not been taken seriously by the public as more than some 1337 hackers.
@@birkirhafsteinsson1335 no one knows. But his scenario can be neutralized good old-fashioned Battlestar Galactica way: you can't hack the network, if there is no network.
There's still a chance it's nonsense. I'm not sure which study he's referring to, since he didn't list a citation for it, but I've read critiques of nuclear winter theories that cast some doubt if not outright debunk the claims of anti-nuke activist scientists like Sagan, et al. For example, an explosion casting dirt into the atmosphere is contingent upon burst height and yield. Most soft targets will be hit with airbursts that will loft little to no dust. Hard targets may be hit with surface bursts, but these are likely to be lower yields that may be limited in their ability to reach the stratosphere, meaning the ejected dust will fall back fairly quickly. Another example are "firestorms" in cities and forests that some claim will inject soot into the upper atmosphere. Most cities lack the fuel loading per unit area to sustain a firestorm. In addition, flattened homes are not conducive to fire since collapsed homes have difficulty receiving adequate airflow. And modern suburbs have large streets that may serve as firebreaks. Moreover, experiments on buildings, trees, etc. suggest that the thermal flash is not strong enough to set them alight, and the charring that does occur creates a cloud of smoke that blocks the surface from receiving more thermal radiation. Any fires that are created are also likely to be extinguished by the blast wave. This doesn't mean there won't be fires - Hiroshima was burned by a firestorm caused by knocking over charcoal stoves during breakfast - but a mass fire in a modern city is not likely to become a firestorm.
If ww3 happens. Just pray that where your standing in within the blast radius. Dying instantly and painlessly without you even realising it is a mercy at that point
"The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet. We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else." Wernher von Braun
Thanks for watching. I know this one was pretty serious, but the topic is serious. If you are truly concerned, consider taking/supporting political action.
removes all nukes WW3 starts surprised pikachu face :O
Its time the clock hit 0. When the intellectuals refuse to recognize any of the good and can only regurgitate "orange man bad," I have zero faith that you are capable of solving this incredibly serious and complex issue of nuclear armament. This is not and will never be a left/right issue and will always be an issue of a lack of interest in the people.
Thank you Kyle. Great video
Kyle, I liked you before, but I respect you even more for speaking up. Thank you greatly
Great video, hopefully a positive influence on part of the collective consciousness on this important topic. You tackled it well
"The first step is education."
We're screwed.
Ironically, education is also what's needed to dispel this popular myth that nuclear war could lead to human extinction. Of course, having extreme emotional thoughts about such a destructive weapon is very human. But it is not rational.
@@zolikoff It has been scientifically proven that a large scale nuclear war would lead to the extenction of the human race. So education actually dispells your myth that nuclear war would not lead to extenction.
@@zolikoff if enough go off over a large enough area you could make acid rain falling on the whole surface of the planet. That's how many nukes we got. Most of them make Nagasaki look like a Kindergarden project.
@@zolikoff The known number of nuclear weapons in the world ( i am very confident in saying its a much bigger number then that ) is more then enough bombs to destroy this world over 600 times in a row.
It’s been mathematically proven that there are enough nuclear warheads not only kill mankind it would be the next mass extinction event that would send us back millions if not billions of years . This is literally unprecedented in all of known history it’s not even close man and the fact that you don’t understand that after watching this video urks me to the core
"It wasn't a russian spy, it was a bear."
Close enough.
Damn bears and their vodkas
Russian spy bear
Plot twist: it was both.
I've seen Gentle Ben, I know what a bear can do
ah yes, the vodka drinking addidas clad bear
As an expat in Japan who has also been to Hiroshima, this is a warning that every global leader needs to keep in mind. The explosion was so hot that people's skin dripped off their bodies, they went blind instantly, and most of the buildings were obliterated. For an amazingly graphic example of this, check out "Barefoot Gen". It is hard to take in and you'll need a strong stomach at times, but it shows just how atrocious the aftermath was.
Another scary example of how the world could have ended was with the 1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm Incident. One man, Stanislav Petrov, had to decide whether his screen showing 5 missiles was correct or not, and he decided not to push the button. Basically, one man saved the entire world from total annihilation.
Can't believe you left out watching War Games.
Stanislav Petrov should be remembered more. The guy literally saved civilization from extinction. Without him, now we would be living in a Mad Max world.
Thanks
@@zakazany1945 dude should have a global holiday
Everyone forgets about Vasili Arkhipov, too. Look him up.. A soviet submarine required the senior officers to agree in order to launch a nuclear weapon, and Arkhipov was the only one of three to say "no." If it wasn't for him, an American aircraft carrier would have been nuked during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This just reminds me of Carl Sagan saying that the Cold War was just two guys standing knee deep in gasoline and one has 10k matches and the other has 20k matches.
A foolish thing. We can't afford to use them
Don’t forget the only reason they’re both in the gasoline in the first place is for dick measuring. People say there’s a lot of complicated reasons for war but bro, it’s /always/ dick measuring
@charleswest6372 I'm pretty sure that was the whole point of the comment. Everyone's in that gasoline, and everyone has matches that'll all go up all at the same time if anyone else's matches go up.
A moment of silence for Stanislav Petrov.
Seriously, this guy deserves, *at least,* a holiday. And if you don't know his name, I urge you to look it up.
This one man actually saved the world.
That happend/happens a lot. It's terrifying that the people who control the fate of the entire world aren't even elected officials, they're just rano military personnel.
I actually thought that was the story he was going to tell.
True, EmpLemon's video on the topic is the best video essay I've seen
Vasily Arkhipov is another to be of massive credit
this man is a hero. Its insane that i could accidentally freak out and commence the end of the world
It's 2020 and we're currently facing a worldwide pandemic but now Kyle suddenly reminds us of the constant threat of global nuclear annihilation. Talk about double the existential crisis.
If the no one talked about covid, no one would have noticed anything different.
ha ha yes. trigger some new anxieties. lol
COVID: prepare for trouble!
Nuclear munitions: and make it double!
@@iPhoneeditor
Nuclear munitions : to destroy the world beyond devastation!
COVID : to unite all people from our vaccination!
@@glitchocity
COVID: to infect the world without vaccination
Nukes: to terrify people within all nations
COVID: to denounce touching like handshakes and gestures of love
Nukes: to extend our lunch capabilities to the stars above!
My dad was an ICBM silo commander in the 70s. One time he was interviewed by a British journalist who asked him if he would actually turn the key if ordered to. My dad said absolutely. He said there are guys who are stationed in missile silos who have no intention of turning the key if ordered to, and they're stealing money from the military for doing it. They're expected to do a job that they know ahead of time they will refuse to do. The journalist was aghast that my father said he'd turn the key without hesitation and asked him, "What about your family?!" He said, "If I get the order to launch, my family is already dead."
Foolish; he'd be the only guy turning the key
and foolish because if yr own is gone there's no point destroying someone else's
And foolish to assume someone else would.
This is a race to the bottom, this is a race there's no point winning nor trying to win
@@mb106429 It's exactly as you said.
If it was a real attack, then you're already dead and there's no point in killing the other half of the world.
And if it was a false alarm, then you sentenced you, your people, and the other half of the world to death for nothing.
@@mb106429 What's foolish is not to be prepared to launch. That's what keeps the other guy from launching.
@@morefiction3264 The other guy has no way of knowing if you would launch or not. So he will expect the worst either way. Actually launching would make zero sense actually. You recieve your orders to launch, there's a chance that the attack is real but it can also be a false alarm. If it's real, you are already done for anyways and there's nothing you can do, so why launch? But if it's a false alarm then you'd be responsible for ending the world. What's the point of even taking that chance?
@@tabushka292 if your response to a nuclear launch is to accept death then you have lost.
My father, who served in the Bundeswehr during the later years of the Cold War, recently told me about a saying that, according to him, was rather popular to describe the nuclear stalemate:
Whoever shoots first, dies last
Same with my dad, he told me stories about going out and drink with his Kameraden. "If the russians are coming, they got nothing to take"
Same with my dad, except that he never served and our country never had nuclear weapons. Oops...😅
"Unfortunately, I assure you, I am being deadly serious."
I can already tell by the fact there's no facility and none of the usual comedic relief. 😰
@@larrymunn5279 they had us in the first round, not gonna lie
Thank the lord for no comic relief...
On a related note, if you fart in space you would propel yourself
Tilde. Isn't that only if you had nothing on your backside?
Idk about that. I literally cackled with the self propelling fart joke at the end.
The most terrifying instance of how close we got to apocalypse for me is Able Archer 83, where the Soviets were convinced that a huge NATO exercise in Europe was a cover for a land invasion and, right when they thought it was going to happen, one of their satellites erroneously reported a US missile attack in progress (actually just sunlight bouncing off clouds).
It literally got to the point where the satellite operator guy, one Lt Col Stanislav Petrov, was watching more and more reports of missile launches coming in, and was being asked whether the Soviet missiles should be launched in response. He reasoned that were a missile attack really in progress it would be thousands of missiles and not a handful - and it was that thought that means any of us are alive today. That’s how close we got.
You're actually conflating two different close calls, which occurred a mere two months apart (!) - the Stanislav Petrov incident occurred in September, while Able Archer 83 was in November. The world nearly ended twice in the same season.
There was also during the cuban missile event where the us fired depth charges at soviet submarines .... which were armed with nuclear missiles. Because that's an act of war the crew mistakenly believed that war just broke out and they should fire their missile and because of some guy they did not
I thought the petrov one was he knew the tech was unreliable and dismissed it as a false warning
Yes
Now the fear of ukraine war because ukraine war causing a nuclear war.
I remember hearing a comparison of 9/11 to a nuclear detonation.
On 9/11, a city was dealing with and caring for a little under 3,000 casualties.
With a nuke, 3,000 or so survivors are dealing with a city worth of casualties.
Damn.......that is freaking terrifying.
Though I think "casualties" in military use includes wounded? So the numbers would be different, with so many wounded on 9/11 and surviving. Nitpicking aside, the point still stands.
9/11 was a terrible event, but most people don't understand that the devastation pales in comparison to other atrocities we've committed.
@@RocketDragons if you are specifically saying that it pales in comparison to what atrocities America has committed, you must remember basically every country has committed mass atrocities at some point in history, the most recent of which I could think of is the Turkish Genocide Of the Kurds
@@TheGibusDemo what's your point?
@@tomwithey711 I believe he read "we've" in the previous comment as "Americans" and was elaborating that we, as the human species, have done many many atrocities, not just the U.S. Which is true, but I can see why he would read "we've" as "Americans" instead of "we've" as "humanity".
I hope this makes a little sense.
A year and a half later, this has aged frighteningly well.
Very frighteningly well, as of November.
I can agree, as of December
We are screwed, as of February
@@vaxjoyer wait what happened?
@@iamboringvideos6832 War --"may"-- extend to larger areas
The fact that there’s no music is absolutely horrifying
Yup yup. I noticed that.
No music, no jokes, no A.R.I.A. You know how grave and dangerous the situation is, when an otherwise lighthearted science-guy cuts all the fun and fancy.
For some reason, I just heard _Land Of Confusion_ in my head...
Just the wind across the plains to trumpet the end.
Advocating for a good armageddon playlist!
Humans: "We're the smartest creatures on earth"
Also humans: "yea we almost ended the world because we saw a bear"
Yeah we are going to hack into the enemies nuclear stockpile - Russians, 2020
"Only you can prevent forest fires"
As for nuclear fires, that's another thing entirely.
Hilarious and also true...... LoL
@@warbrain1053 Well, double edged sword of the positively antique state of America's launch equipment is that since it's so old, it can't connect to the internet, and so can't be hacked.
It's a good ad for glasses and contacts tho.
Other good near nuclear close calls include:
When a USA radar base thought the rising moon (yes The Moon) was an incoming Russian attack.
When the sun reflected just right on some clouds and the Russian nuclear missile warning system triggered.
And we are only alive today because there were people present who said "no, let's triple check that first" or "I know it's against protocol, but let's call the higher-ups for instructions - just to be safe".
This comment makes me wonder just as much as the video if USA and Russia are the right superpowers to have so many nukes, but at the same time if not them two other countries would. It's just sad to think about it and it's more sad that there are countries that don't even declare how many nuclear weapons they have right now...
I believe a flock of geese was once mistaken for an incoming bomber.
From what I've read the effects of a nuclear winter are often overstated. Not good, terrible in fact, but overstated. Personally I think that humanity, as a species, would be really hard to kill off; there are almost eight billion of us now, and we have access to technologies such as canned food storage and indoor hydroponics which largely ensure that at least some people will be able to survive. Anything short of a runaway greenhouse effect or new snowball Earth will leave some survivors.
@@ronnycook3569 the nuclear winter isn't the main issue. Radiation, and the initial attack are also major issues.
@@Hacker-pt3wm For radiation - not as bad as most people think it is. The radioactivity of any substance is more or less inversely proportional to its half-life; and nuclear fallout resulting from air bursts - as would result from a city strike - is relatively small. Ground strikes are primarily used for anti-force strategies, which as hardened targets also require high accuracy, and are typically based out in the country. Humans can tolerate low levels of radiation fairly easily; we just avoid it as the risks of cancer are relatively high. But by "high" we usually mean odds of one in a thousand, not one in two.
Even if you pick the largest two thousand cities on the map of the USA, there are still quite a large number of sizeable towns left. You're also left with all the countries which are not nuclear targets; I doubt that anybody will be quick to nuke New Zealand, or Thailand, or Chad, or Ecuador.
There's no doubt that a nuclear war would effectively destroy the major nuclear target countries but there is a lot of the world outside of those countries.
The land area of the Earth is a bit over 500 million square kilometres. There are about 4000 warheads on Earth right now. That's roughly one every hundred thousand square kilometres.
The nuclear winter and, yes, the radiation, would be terrible and the global population would be cut drastically. However, Homo Sapiens as a species once survived with around 3000--10000 individuals. To get that low again, we would need to kill 999999 out of every million humans on Earth. The Hiroshima bombing (admittedly a small warhead) killed less than half of the city's population. There would be major famine; crops all over the world would be drastically reduced, for a time. To do so badly enough to destroy humanity completely, I do not believe. We can store food; we can raise crops indoors, given the available energy. We have access to forms of energy (geothermal, wind, tidal) which would likely survive a war.
We're really hard to stamp out. I can't see a nuclear war of the scale permitted by current weapon reserves doing it. A nuclear war in conjunction with bio-engineered plagues might manage it.
I may be speaking unreasonably optimistically here, but I'm speaking from what I know of the science and the facts.
I wish when people talked about the bombs they didn't only mention the 80 thousand "instant" deaths. If you read accounts there's so, so much suffering, and a vast hellscape of horrendous, painful deaths from burns, radiation, and other injuries. Atomic bombs kill a lot more people in a much more terrifying ways in the days following the moment of the explosion.
"The living will envy the dead".
It is the very symbol of Atom's glory!
I’ll mention one time a Russian nuclear submarine radar malfunctioned and they thought the US fired nukes. Thankfully, Russian nuclear submarines require both officers aboard to authorize the launch of a bomb, one of said officers rejected the authorization thankfully. Thing is he was removed from his position soon after like bruh just saved human life on earth
We should litterly celebrate that guys holiday every year...
cdonovan2511 i agree
If a sub "launched" a bomb, they'd be seriously borked, sorry it made me think of flying submarines. Anyhoo, the Ohio class SSBN carries around 24 Trident II SLBM. Around 40 - 50% are MIRV capable meaning a single SLBM can strike 4 targets. Ohio class submarines are slowly being phased out into SSGN's. They will never be totally phased out, but it is a step in the right direction. Though China is the problem now and you thought Russians didn't care about their own citizens, China gives 0.000001 borks.
False. He retired, and was given a demerit for failing to accurately document his actions.
@@faisalaldan3420 Nah that wasn't from a radar malfunction, it was because the US was dropping practice depth charges, and the submarine thought they were real and that the war had already started. They're talking about a different thing.
"The only winning move is- not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
Classic.
Now I have to go back and watch that movie.
❤
I have found my people.
Oh. You mean like how the onky countries in fallout 4 thatw were safe from nuclear devestation were the ones without NUKES
Yes! Thanks for reminding me of this.
Read up on the story of Stanislov Petrov, he’s the only man credited with saving the world
Yeah and far as i remember He got pushed down by russian autorities and lived in poverty and was Not even mentioned to be called a Hero but instead a unwilling commrad that Just disobeyed Orders.
"Funny" stuff If you think about it... Saving the world and being treated Like Shit...
@@GuySwords Yup! That's exactly it. But in my missile defense classes we learned all about him, why the anomaly happened in the first place, etc. Fun stuff
@@dirigibles4997 Let's not forget the time when USA's Early Warning System mistook the rising moon for an armada of incoming Soviet nuclear missiles. That one was a pretty close call too. Luckily the technicians realised the error just in the nick of time.
BertyFromDK that must have been a very old system!
@@dirigibles4997 Some US nuclear silos have computers that work with floppy disks ... the big flappy old floppy disks.
In the book “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, the author describes the future history of the world following a devastating nuclear apocalypse involving major fallout in the latter half of the 20th century, and speculates that humans once again develop and deploy nuclear weapons when they finally work their way out of the dark ages again.
At the end of the book, over 18 centuries after the first time, competing blocs of nation-states once again initiate a new nuclear apocalypse, having failed to learn from history.
There was a short story I vaguely remember studying for English class at primary school ~30 years ago. It briefly followed three generations of a family during and after a nuclear war - the first generation as a girl and her family trying to survive the initial fallout, the second her children trying to deal with the long term health issues from the radiation exposure, and the third with the original girl as an old woman and one of the last 'true humans' in their little mutant tribe, trying to describe what life was like when she was a young girl.
While a lot of the effects are things that wouldn't actually happen in a real nuclear exchange, it is still rather chilling to realise how fragile modern society is.
@@jonathant8575Society dies, but no recorded mutations from radiation have actually been recorded. Pictures and reports of mutations out of Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Fukushima are not reflected by the data collected in all these cases; the rate of mutations in nuclear-affected births has never been higher than the surrounding non-irradiated population. It's a crappy sci-fi staple that is more akin to glowing in the dark if you get too irradiated.
It wouldn't happen outside of fiction. The first nuclear apocalypse would also be the last. It would be the end of humanity. We're talking about extinction.
Bear: "what's in that building? Wonder if they got any picnic baskets?"
Also Bear: *almost ends the world*
Entertainingly enough, the Yogi Bear show had started the year before.
@Christopher Romero
Wait really? I didn't know that, Bears just always make me think of Yogi Bear.
Yogi: Hey, Boo Boo, let's go get some pic-a-nic baskets!
Boo Boo: But what about Ranger Smith, Yogi?
Yogi: Fuck Ranger Smith. Let him get his own pic-a-nic baskets!
The only aircraft scrambled were interceptors. They were armed with nuclear air to air weapons designed so one interceptor can take out entire formations of incoming bombers.
You know what happens when interceptors don't find enemy bombers?
Absolutely nothing. The interceptors return to base, the crews change their underwear and they carry on their businesses.
Even if bombers had been launched there would have been plenty of time to recall them.
Hey Booboo! I'm gonna end humanity today!
Thanks Kyle, my anxiety was asleep but this really kicked it outta bed
Glad to see your acting like yourself again
He got nothing to say but Hey yohr WELCOME😎😎😎👌🏾
Become like the manatees from south park it makes life better
Your anxiety was asleep in 2020? What black magic did you use to accomplish that?
A little bit of existential dread is good for people i think. Keeps you on your feet
I live in Finland. We've been officially neutral since WWII. I remember seeing a list of nuclear targets in the former USSR that the US would've nuked. Some of them were very close to us, for example Tallinn in Estonia. The calculated fallout was such that Finland would've become uninhabitable, despite not actually being on the list of targets. The point is that there are no winners in a nuclear war. No-one is safe. The lucky ones get vaporized in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately the reality of superpower relations is such that no-one wants to even be perceived as putting down their weapon first. It's truly a balance of terror.
I Love your Country 😜
Welp, one year later, your looking to join NATO………..
@@equarg Nobody wins a nuclear war, whether they're allied with others or not.
Very true. The fact that there will be no winners just doesn't seem to really sink in for the people in charge. That is why the weapons should never have been created in the first place. It disgusts me and it was my idiot country who built them and used them first. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Morality and a sense of preservation of humanity and all life on Earth should have been more highly valued. We inherited a legacy we never wanted. Many people at the time didn't want it. Those who actually understood how awful it was. Many of the people that worked on it's creation regretted it. As they should! They ought to have thought it out and considered long term beyond them and WWII. The bombs were not even necessary to end the war which makes it so much worse. They try to tell you they were needed but they were not. Many military people and politicians at the time knew they were not necessary and said so but President Truman and whoever else wanted to use them. American arrogance at it's finest. Nothing to be proud of.
Neutral no longer
I was until recently an officer on the Ohio Class Ballistic Missile Submarine USS Nevada. On that submarine I stood Officer of the Deck and was a member of the EA teams. The officers that decode the Emergency Action Messages that potentially have launch orders in them.
I say all of that to lend some credibility to the fact that an accidental launch in any imaginable scenario has been thought about and has a measure in place to stop it. Really multiple measures.
So it won't be the US accidentally launching. The India, Pakistan situation now that is scary.
We had a 1sq called away on my boat during Sunburned Chicken. Didn’t hear the obligatory “this is the captain this is an exercise” for roughly ten seconds. I don’t know why he neglected or forgot to say it, but during those ten seconds everyone in maneuvering looked at each other with increasing anxiety and horror. A flood of immense relief arrived when he finally rushed through saying it over the 1MC. He apologized to the crew after we did our drills. I was on the HMJ. Glad to be out, grateful to be unfazed by long hours and corporate red tape in my career. Hope you are doing well, I enjoyed working on the Nevada at 51 on the pier. Always a good crew.
Are you talking about the EAMs that you can hear on shortwave?
@madmax2069 EA team is short for Emergency Action team, so yes those.
@bluestoneamps4716 I'm not sure how far back you served, but if building 730 wasn't tied to the pier, then a hot minute (haha, that shot across the bow was in good fun). They started to be called celestial chickens lol.
Would that scenario entails retaliation by false detection?
The bear commander : Mission failed. We'll get them next time.
Amazing comment.
Russian Bear, failed badly.
The plot to destroy humanity, bear world domination...
"One of the things that keeps me up at night is the number nine hundred and nineteen. It's the number of tactical nuclear missiles around the globe on high alert status - - kept ready to launch at a moment's notice. It was nine hundred and twenty last week, but a corroded fuse snapped in one Tuesday, rendering the warhead inert. Its owners haven't noticed yet. But I was up. So I noticed." - Superman, 'Superman: Unchained' issue #6
Damn, stuff like this is why I like superman.
"just one bomb, rogue scientist, terrorist"... The Sum Of All Fears by Tom Clancy is about this exact threat.
Hell, Debt of Honor foresaw the events of 9/11. Flight 93 was supposed to target the US Capitol Building, and that’s what happens in Debt of Honor.
@@DJTinyTim13 yuuuuuup
My boy Clancy figured it all out.
@@talismanstryke6692 yup. I wasn't surprised reading that part. His writing is so technical that it would've b3ensuper reckless for him to write that story. Haha
"Putting away your gun doesn't make the enemy put away the there's, I found that out the hard way!" said a dead man.
True, but going into every situation with a drawn gun is a recipe for a violent end. And when violence does break out, fewer guns means fewer corpses. More importantly, nuclear weapons are totally different in scale and precision than mere firearms.
Lame
@@corvuscallosum5079 doesn't need to be drawn. Just the presence of it in the holster can keep the other guy from taking advantage of you not having one.
These aren't guns, a better analogy is hand grenades in a prison cell
@@BeigeYeti12345 This is the whole idea behind Mutually Assured Destruction, which is, well, madness in itself.
It's sad that average 'muricans really believe in peace through stalemate like this. Nuclear war is truly inevitable.
The most unbelievable thing he asked us to imagine was the president being asleep at 3am.
and not on twitter
and not actively driving the world as a whole into the ground
Or threatening to nuke other countries
Maybe he's referring to a future President whose actually objectively awesome like Abraham Lincoln type guy? (Well I'm sure the South hated him but whatever)
Then again that's probably hard to find someone who wouldn't abuse that kind of power, you can afford to drop your morals if you hold an entire Country in your hands and all these nukes that can end the entire Human Race all at your word. At that point much like the Mafia/Mob/Bratva you're so untouchable you can probably get away with doing anything as long as no one can prove it.
aderhol is a hellav a drug
Kyle talking to us from his supervillain mansion in the Mojave waiting for armageddon so he can cash in his chips
The Mojave, eyy? Lemme tell ya, the heat almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
My neighbor
Let’s be honest he probably has the Platinum Chip
More like caps
Looks like we ran into a 15 karat run of bad luck
8:18 "One out of every three humans." This was so profound that it upgraded my existential dread to a whole new terrifying level
@River Piscean its like rounding up everyone in every building in every country and putting a bullet in every third person's head. In under 10 seconds. And then the rest die from illness
That line made me think of an action plan. And live in a family of five. Pretty scary indeed
So like the black plague, only faster.
*anxiety intensifies
Virginia Brat I would like to point out that the nuclear winter described in the video? That’s only after 100 nuclear weapons are detonated at once. As mentioned, over 13,000 nuclear weapons exist in the world. If any major country gets involved in a nuclear war, you can bet that they have a lot more than the minimum 100 bombs. The only chance you’d have at only having 100 weapons launching is if two small countries decide to wipe each other out of existence, and no other countries interfere. Even then, it’s possible that those countries could have more than 100 weapons combined. A nuclear winter where 1 in every 3 die is practically the best case scenario if a nuclear war starts up, anywhere in the world.
Thank you for posting this. Growing up during the Cold War this is a fear we all had. Younger generations need to understand that this single topic is more important than any other for the survival of our species.
I grew up during the tail end of the cold war i have the same sentiment as you. Im hoping the new Oppenheimer movie will reawaken the same feeling in younger generations.
It is so good to see you again, dear child! Remember, the Church of the Children of Atom is always here for you. Salvation IS attainable!
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”
Robert Oppenheimer got it right
a quote from Hinduism
I chose to dislike because of how terrifying that single statement is
@Virtual Sky Tate Original quote was right. Yours is an adaptation.
@Virtual Sky Tate yeah, it sounds really weird. It is oddly correct though. Just an archaic usage of the words. I guess that's what happens when you quote translated scripture.
This is why when I picked where I live in my city I made sure that I would be in the "fireball" part of a nuke if one went off. With luck I'll just die instantly.
Seriously - that was your motivation in choosing where you live? You must be fun at a party.
@Kyaru Momochi idk probably cause its total horseshit. No person but the most fear-addled doomer would even give that more than a passing thought when choosing where to live, let alone making it one of their main requirements.
@Kyaru Momochi lmao what should it matter, again considering that in the daily course of your life is worthless. Just live dummy
@Kyaru Momochi your point makes no sense either. What should it matter? In the end concerning yourself with it is a waste of time.
This is why I won't live in a city or near a big city, so I can survive even though it might suck afterwards, but hey I won't go out like a bitch!!
“Nuclear arms race is like two men in a pool up to their waists in gasoline arguing over who has more matches” Carl Sagan, I think.
Opponents in the nuclear arms race each have enough to thoroughly destroy the Earth. What the hell difference does it make if one can destroy the Earth 10 times over and the other can do it 11 times?
Redundancy, mate. The more you have the more can be destroyed while still having a working stockpile the survivors can launch.
@@mikesimms5750 This is Insanity, though.
Meh I’d be more worried about bio warfare. Why destroy everything in your enemies space when you could destroy the enemy alone and keep the spoils?
@@UNKNOWNPERSON-kk9kd except the USA doesn't, russia does, not that it really matters though
The planet won't be destroyed by humans. It has endured a lot worse. Mankind might destroy itself, the earth will be fine.
honestly i see three ways this ends
1. nuclear weapons are destroyed forever
2. another cold war
3. nuclear Holocaust
also if a cold war happens these are what would happen
1. it ends and where back to the original options
2. nuclear Holocaust
Me: "Megaton"
Kyle: "Teragramm"
So admittedly I had to use Google but according to the math a teragram is technically more than a megaton.
Teragram = 1,000,000,000,000 grams
Megaton = 1,000,000 tons
Ton = 907184.74 grams
1,000
Megaton = 907,184,740,000 grams which is almost 93 million grams or over 100,000 tons less than a teragram
Hope this doesn't come across as snobby or a know-it-all, I definitely used Google for help, just was curious and bored enough at home to want to look it up lol
@@KingTen91 That would be the imperial ton and mega is an SI-prefix, you dont use that in front of imperial units. The metric ton is exactly 1000kg or 1.000.000 gramms.
@@rtg5881 ohhh, lol I didn't think of that 😅. This is good example of why you don't act like you know what you're talking about if you know you don't, especially on the internet, someone else might actually know and you're left looking foolish haha. Thanks for correcting me tho, now I know 🤙
@@KingTen91 There's like, 3 types of tons. Thanks, America.
Or around 1745.2 buttloads
Like some high IQ dude said...
"I don't know which weapons will be used in World War 3, but World War 4 will definitely be fought with sticks & stones." - you know who
Damn... I cant believe Voldemort really said that
Arthur C. Clarke?
The nuclear bomb did not create a knew problem, it necessitated a solution to a much older one.
Michael J. Fox??
Was it Barney?
I'd like to see Project Orion restarted so we can finally do something beneficial with nuclear weapons technology.
Also, the story of Stanislav Petrov really needs to be told more often. We ALL owe our lives to that man because he decided not to react to a false alarm that would have triggered world war 3. It's an important lesson in restraint when the fate of the world is at stake.
Rest in peace, Mr Petrov
wasnt that the captain of the russian nuclear uboat that refrained to retaliate on what turned out to be a false alarm?
He understood that id be needless death, he was a wise man.
I just want to say you have one of the cleanest comment sections I've seen in ages. No bots no worries.
From the title and thumbnail, I thought this was going to be about how history ended in archeological terms in 1950, because that's the rough estimate of when we'd put enough radioactive material into the atmosphere that radiometric dating becomes too inaccurate.
Well that’s depressing
Carbon dating is still a thing I hope
@@starmorpheus
It is, but not with things found on the surface. Dig just a little bit and the slightly heightened background radiation no longer has a meaningful impact.
@@starmorpheus nah that dont work
Kyle (Thor) Hill: Nuclear Armageddon
2020: Pfft. That's plan F, son.
With how long 2020 has felt, we're at plan AJ
@@Crocogator: See, by my count, it's up to Plan Upsilon-Omicron-7.2.b♭\₹.
@@sdfkjgh 2020 is infinity and we're all here together
@@sdfkjgh Upsilon dies backwards
@@adgarbault: I have no idea what that means or is supposed to mean, I just know it sounds funny. Have an updoot.
P.s. Is it a reference to John Dies at the End?
It's crazy how relevant this video is today... Thank you for spreading this information. I think it is something everyone needs to be aware of.
Even more relevant with the war going and Taiwan and China, seems the humanity inches closer by the day to utter annihilation
Call me crazy, but isn't everything he says here super super obvious and everyone has been talking about this since literally the beginning of the Cold war? Am I missing something?
"All of you watching have lived every second of your lives under threat of the end of human history." I think my grandmother is the only person I know for whom that is not true, as she was a young teen at the end of WWII. And she told me one time, that even though she fully believed it was necessary to drop the bomb to end the war, "I wish they hadn't dropped the bombs. I don't think the world has been safe ever since."
Safe enough for her to grow old and die without seeing ww3.
@@kolinmartzexactly. I believe ww3 talk is fear mongering. Plausible? Sure. Likely? Probably not. Dare I say I believe Putins and Kim Jung uns antics are merely smoke and mirrors and politicaly driven.
It would not be safe whether they were dropped or not. The knowledge and technology is there. If you were a teen at the end of WW2, your live would have been under threat soon enough.
So Kyle can make me a persone that is respecting every second of its life, just with one video. Well played sir.
You walk into a house with two families. If you take everything on the surface:
- They both love their own families very much and will do what it takes to protect them.
- They have weapons that will take the other family out if one family decides to attack them.
- They're amicable to each other but there have been mistakes that made things look...bad. (Dog tried to climb over the fence, thought it was the neighbor).
Your goal is to disarm both families that have weapons pointed at each other in the name of protection.
Who puts down their weapons first? How do you know who can be trusted?
Yeah, the one family put their weapon down but they *might* have a weapon buried in the back yard. (Hopefully the dog doesn't dig it up. Or one of their children doesn't tell the other family they have one and it was supposed to be secret but the child thought it was for the best of the world and they can always live (defect) at the other family's place.
Nuclear disarmament looks and sounds easy, but I cannot imagine being the one that has to rely on the kindness of monsters - the same monster that would use a weapon like a nuke against millions of lives.
It's also disheartening to know that I am that monster.
the only thing that reliably protects you from nuclear weapons is the awareness of the guy with the trigger that 10 minutes after he pushed the trigger he will die because the other side did the same in retaliation...
as long as a single nuclear missile exists having your own will be the only valid way of protecting yourself from it.
MAYBE if some alien race suddenly gifts the entire planet a 100% reliable system that can counter nuclear ICBMs we might get rid of them because they wouldnt pose a threat to anyone anymore. but you know when a sentence starts with "if an alien race gifts" then its not very likely...
at least we got to the point where they only stockpile enough for one total destruction of the enemy instead of the arms race of who can destroy the entire world more often...
Its stupid, all of it is idiotic. We should never retaliate with nuclear weapons, but the threat still needs to stand. Let it be a empty threat, let one family die so that at least human history goes on. We sadly, and regrettably cannot sooth the fears of the other, but if we die, let them grow, live and thrive. Let our death not be in vain.
A possible way to solve this is to create a culture of peace. The EU did that. The key goal was to intertwine economies of its member countries in a way that would make a war impossible, with the goal of slowly becoming a federal super state. The former arch enemies France and Germany have put and still put a lot of effort into coming to terms with the atrocities commited during the wars, and became the closest allies in the process. In such a situation, neither side feels the need of having nuclear weapons pointed at the other, or even even having a military at all.
@@faultier1158 i think germany and france are a bad example for this, because they share a border with each other...
but guess what: nuclear fallout gives a shit about borders.
so nuclear weapons are only an option for nations which are far enough apart that their own bombs wont cause massive problems in their own countries. canada and mexico dont have to be afraid of the american nuclear arsenal, because any bombs dropped in one of these countries would lead to massive problems in the USA. and in europe distances are far smaller than in north america.... germans dropping a nuclear bomb on france would be like lighting your neighbors house on fire when your house shares a wall with your neighbors.
@@TheScarvig Germany doesn't even have nuclear weapons, so that wasn't the point anyway. My point was about how a culture of peace leads to demilitarization, which also affects nuclear weapons.
This needs to be talked about more. Thank you for your contribution to the collective consciousness.
I'm old enough to remember when back in the early 80s, here in the UK, our government distributed a pamphlet to every household. This pamphlet was called Protect And Survive, and it's graphical style resembled a cross between the ubiquitous airline safety leaflet, and a flat pack wardrobe instruction booklet, depicting calm serene looking people taking shelter inside a homemade shelter consisting of little more than a door laid on its side behind a sofa.
A lot of parents, mine included, intercepted the ones that came to their houses before they could alarm their kids, but they started to appear in schools and other public places.
I was still a young boy at the time, but I was bright enough to understand the ramifications of nuclear war and the concept that a government wouldn't go to tne expense of sending such a pamphlet to every household if the possibility of a nuclear attack wasn't a reality.
I remember asking my dad if there was going to be a nuclear war, and he genuinely couldn't reassure me that there wouldn't be. Thinking back, how could he when he was old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis, and life became very scary for a few years as the cloud of an imminent nuclear war loomed all to realistically.
So tangible was this existential threat, that the very culture of that time was saturated with references to nuclear holocaust. Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood was an anthem of the period, and movies like The Day After and Threads pretty much convinced us all that those killed under the mushroom clouds would be the lucky ones.
They were very dark days indeed.
So the government in the UK thought hiding behind a door would be safe from a nuclear attack? Sounds about right. Here in the US, it used to be duck tape and plastic to put around the windows, then hide under a table.
@@Blueknight1960 If you're far enough from the center of the blast that the shockwave won't instantly collapse the building you're in, the next biggest concern is flying glass shards from all of the windows getting blown inward, so hiding behind sturdy furniture is not an unreasonable suggestion. If you're closer to the blast than that, it doesn't really matter what you do.
As an aging GenXer, I recall how in Los Angeles in the 1970s we used to have monthly siren tests and bomb drills where we ducked and covered around the perimeter of the class room. (We ducked under our desks for the earthquakes!) We were also sent home with a booklet about how to avoid fallout and radiation poisoning like described in the UK. After learning what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I figured the best thing to do if the sirens went off was to be outside and be vaporized instantly. Cheerful childhood Cold War memories!
@@Blueknight1960 "duck and cover. Flip a picnic over and use the blanket, that'll save you"
-The US government apparently
@@Blueknight1960 It actually wasn't for protection, it was so when everything cleared up they'd be able to find bodies more easily. It's the same reason at one stage the UK advised their people to put on potato sacks: it wasn't for protection, it was so your body was pre-packaged for removal and disposal if and when the powers that be came through and cleaned up. There really *was* no way to protect against a nuclear strike, so... may as well give some people some hope and a little practicality in the event it wasn't the end of the world, right?
All I have to say about Hiroshima / Nagasaki is that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was correct in what he said after the attack on Pearl Harbor. "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
One of the best cases of: Fuck around and Find out
@@mikemathis2220worst cases. We killed millions of civilians
@@royisabau5i’m sure that when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they also didn’t care about killing innocent civilians.
It doesn’t make it right what either side did, but really, did they expect the U.S. to just take a hit like that and walk away scot-free? And they (the Japanese) had no intent on stopping (the fighting) either, so the U.S. made a decision to stop for them.
He never actually said that. That was just a little bit of Hollywood spice to stoke American pride in the film Tora! Tora! Tora!
@@silver7215 What civilians? They attacked a military base, not a fully populated city.
Bear: They had no picnic baskets in there, Bubu. Good thing I'm smarter than the average b...
4:47 fun fact: Putin's "nuclear alert" made us go to DEFCON 2, which had only been reached before during the Cuban missile crisis
Fun Fact: You don't know that, DEFCON levels have never been publicly announced
@@anixtro6837 most likely at least
@@anixtro6837 that's information for them, not us.... We just work and pay for the nightmare to be constructed
Do you make it a habit to outright lie all the time?
This reminds me of a story from russia at the height during the cold war, where many missiles were detected on a radar coming to russia, and one man was in charge of sending missiles back, but he didnt, he thought it was a false alarm, and it was, it was just. just the one gut feeling from one man saved us
You are correct. that is a terrifying story. It just needed a Psycho on the button and we would all be dead. The Flip of a coin.
That story also had a sibling. The B-59 Nuclear submarine incident. Where a Soviet submarine near Cuba lost communication and US attempts at getting the submarine to surface for ID via signalling depth-charges was mistaken as an attempt at destruction.
This caused the submarine to be running away in panic of war having begun and was on the brink of following through with protocol and launch its T-5 Nuclear Torpedo.
The only reason it didn't go through, was a unique circumstance in the form of Vasily Arkhipov, a high ranking executive officer who was given equal power to the captain and political officer. So instead of only the latter two like normally (who voted in favour of launch). This submarine also needed Vasily's approval and he steadfast refused to authorize and managed to convince the others to wait for communication. Effectively preventing war again on a gut feeling.
What made it even MORE of a insane scenario. Vasily was a deputy commander during the K-19 Accident. Where a nuclear submarine almost underwent a catastrophic meltdown if it wasn't for the crew risking (with numerous sacrificing) their lives to prevent it. It is believed his role in that was how he managed to convince the others not to fire.
This video was like an odd blast from my own past.
When I was 17 or 18 years old (13-14 years ago), I was laying in bed one night listening to music on headphones and nearing sleep when I had the sudden realisation you've just described. I even remember the exact song that was playing at the time.
It was like something just subconsciously snapped together in my brain, and for the following 6-12 months I became just the most inconsolable wreck of extreme paranoia and anxiety.
I was afraid to look out of windows or at the horizon or sky, every little sound and sudden change in the level of light outside terrified me, and I would see mushroom clouds in my nightmares basically every night.
A very rough period for me, but thankfully I did eventually learn to live with it and build up a resistance - though I am still very aware of the threat and still occasionally have the nightmares...
What song was it?
@@janetharguello7195 "The Outlaw Torn", by Metallica - pretty sure it was during the solo~
It's called Impending Doom.
A lot of hospice patients go through it in the months/weeks/days/hours before they Pass.
There's nothing that can be said that takes away the fear or morbid fascination/fixation.
If it happens, it happens. Nothing can change it once it's been done.
We just have to trust our Leaders not to do something impossibly stupid.
Trouble is, I don't. Not at all. Either side.
America has the better missile defense system but that won't matter with the ones that have 20 warheads inside 80 decoys.
What 'got me over' my Absolute Fear was a dream where a single Alien aircraft invaded & went from fighting 3 AF pilots to hundreds in less then 5 minutes & then one of the Fighters used a nuke (or was destroyed by the UFO, doesn't matter for what comes next) so 1 became 3 & then the world exploded in a wall of pure white fire while I watched & despaired.
I heard that we are 130 seconds to Midnight Defcon 1.
Be happy we're here today. Hug your family & enjoy your dog walks. Nothing in life is guaranteed.
Thyroid cancer & Parkinsons Putin going insane/senile doesn't help in the slightest. B@stard is a joke but he has 1 of 3 buttons that can start WW3.
a gamma ray burst could hit the earth and wipe out all complex life instantly, and we would have no way of detecting that it was coming. It would reset earth back to the precambrian.
have fun with that information.
@@fordprefect859 I know this well, among many other similar threats. They never did bother me much, even less so since the event I described. I appreciate the heads-up though, thanks~ :3
"just a single nuclear bomb going of in a large city would lead to the biggest disaster in human history"
2020: "are you challenging me?"
hahahaha....this is so sad
@@MoriShep ... and unfortunately, at the rate 2020 is going so far, it's not entirely unreasonable either...
Please don't make me laugh at that. It makes me feel terrible.
@@awesomemccoolname7111
That's exactly my brand of comedy
@@awesomemccoolname7111 we only laugh to keep from going mad good sir/madam
Matt Maltese' "As The World Caves In" feels a lot more terrifying now.
Kyle Hill: The end of the World
LEMMiNO fans: First time?
LEMMiNO did it again!
Thank god scientists know what they’re doing.
I have several "conspiracy theorist" friends that need to hear something exactly like this, and now I have a way to possibly get through to them. Thank you, so very much.
I think there is a good balance between questioning things “including the govt” and full blown conspiracy theory. Not that I think its bad to question everything, but it is not safe mentally.
Unlikely, confirmation bias will probably keep them from looking at evidence particularly when voiced by a "political opponent" (assuming your friend is something other than a liberal leaning democrat). Give it a go but don't be surprised if "agree to disagree" is the only option
Yeah if your friends are "conspiracy theorists" or in other words conservative they'll know this kid is no where near as smart as he sounds and more importantly we are in the position we are in because China wants to fight. They're actively, openly, and aggressively seeking to conquer the world. You can tell this whole thing is meant to insinuate that the world is scary right now because of orange man bad. It's not "confirmation bias" or "conspiracy theories" it's called being educated. I'll be honest I'm only a few minutes in to this video but it's just history and an underlying fear. I just listened to a true historical thing this morning that included the speech the president gave that day we dropped the first bomb. Oh also Russia isn't the enemy.
What conspiracy theory is this video related to exactly?
Tinfoilhatnutcase One Agreed
It is to be noted that kyle’s base(evil lab) is on a hill. It may one day protect humanity from death.
That's probably an unexpected side effect of having the base in a hill to make a pun with his last name
Oh, you think that hill is on earth?
Of course he is Kyle Hill after all.
Kyle's Hill...
he is smart enough to not film from the actual base but chaotic evil enough to have it in frame.
You missed the big question tho. What we really want to know is how many bowls of chili would it take to propel us out of our solar system?
2020: Thanks for the suggestion
Oh god no
This made me spit out my water. 🤣
Shit
oof
Let's die laughing on every and any meme
A documentary I saw mentioned a case where a Russian soldier saw what looked like missiles on a radar
He thought about issuing a reply with missiles
But thought about it and thought it was probably a glitch
He was right
It's weird how close we've gotten to ending everything
Flock of birds, wasn't it?
@@warped_rider
No
I can't remember the name
It was on TV here on channel 4
They just did the countdown on the most likely ways the world could end
If I find it I'll put the name here
Also think Today I Found Out did a video about it
The reason he thought it qas a glitch was because it was only a small number of missiles. If a war between Russian and the US would start, they would probably send dozens at the same time. Glad he was right and not just a pawn in an elaborate mind game.
Stanislav Petrov was his name. He had pressure from the kremlin itself but he refused to listen the orders. A true global hero
@@rafaelfermin4619 Vasiliy Arkhipov is another person we can thank for saving the world. During the Cuban missile crisis his sub was nearly hit by depth charges dropped by an American ship tying to signal them to surface and they thought all hell had broken out on the surface and that they were under attack. Their orders were to respond to any attack with nuclear torpedoes. The captain and political officer wanted to launch the nukes. Arkhipov thought they should surface and see what was going on before potentially inciting WW3.
Well, I guess I'll have to start working on my caps collection
Soon Atom's glory will be upon us! Very soon!
You have to get the WHOLE world to play along.
When my dad was in the Air Force he had to call in a Bent Spear once.
He was base security, and was on watch along with a few more airmen, standing guard on nuclear-equipped aircraft.
Two of the others on guard were tossing a ball back and forth to each other. Because it's freaking *boring* on watch, and 'ya gotta keep your mind engaged, or risk missing important things.
Well, one of 'em missed the catch. And the ball bounced into the intake of the aircraft.
It wasn't on, so there wasn't any damage or anything. It would've been just a few seconds to reach in and pull it out. But my dad saw a lower officer walking out of a building, watch the ball go in, and walk *right* back inside.
So. Dad did the only thing he could do: Pre-empt the narc, by the book. So he called it in.
It was a BIIIG shit-show. And the only thing that saved my dad's ass was that his photographic memory let him spout off the specific regulation he was following, down to page and paragraph.
I dont get it
It's...pretty bad when any US military nuclear incidents get called.
Like, the President is called every time one occurs. Which, in the military, is kinda like the Eye of Sauron looking *directly* at you.
...Except every look is filtered through several *additional* layers of angry Eyes, all the way down through the Chain of Command.
@@xxmegazocker9894 the ball could be viewed as an attack on the armed aircraft or retrieving the ball would look like sabotage. Reporting it first meant that security forces were asking him for the details vs a random witness who may believe that they could get promoted for snitching.
Reminds me of the days when nuclear security ran off of 8" floppy dis... What? Still?!
@@bartroberts1514
Arguably, that makes it more and more secure by the year. Good luck finding a drive this side of a junkyard. Plus, it's hard to sneaker-net stuff out when your file takes a shoebox.
"Accidental nuclear war".... Nah, Nena let those luftballons go on purpose.
Ninety nine of them, and they were all red.
Nah Nena red balloons.
That bear was ready to start some serious sh*t.
In the woods?
Man..... watching this today.........has a different feel.
“...Or at least elect a president who understands anything.”
Shots fired. Get ready for the hate messages my dude.
Yea but its definitely true.
Incoming wave of dipshits swooping in and bein' like "He understands everything more than you, BRO. Donny-T's playing 4-D chess, BRO. You're just to dumb to see it wearin' those ineffective masks, BR-cough... cough cough.... huh. I got somethin' in my throat. it's probably nothing."
Oreagle Oh don’t get me wrong, I completely agreed with what he said. I’m just saying that I’m sure people will hear that and get butt hurt.
I see I am not the only one that caught that comment.. Think South Park had it correct, our options where Turd Sandwich or Major Douche.
I dont think many of them whatshing sience shows
1:29 if i recall correctly even Einstein was left depressed knowing that his findings contributed to the creation of nuclear weapons. Ernest Rutherford had he been alive probably wouldnt have been to happy either im guessing.
Einstein before his death called his letter to the president, urging the US to make the atomic bomb before Germany could, his greatest mistake.
He said had he known the nazi's would fail to create the weapon, he would have done nothing. Meaning he would've died before mentioning the possibility to anyone.
Einstein called the cold war arms race before the end of WWII, he knew the weapons would be stockpiled if invented by every country on the world.
@@larrymunn5279 "All involved were"
Edward Teller and many others would probably disagree.
That intro... Man. That is how you do an intro to such an important topic. Excellent video, Kyle. As always. Cheers.
Edit: Also, love the format for this video. On point.
"Mankind invented the atomic bomb but no mouse would ever create a mousetrap"
Albert Eisenstein ☹
*Einstein :|
Becuase they can't, can't in every physical or mental way
If said mouse had the intellect to DO so... And a sneaky neighbor mouse had been stealing his winter food stores... Maaaaybe we would be seeing the first mouse made & patented murder device.
My old man used to sleep on top of the Polaris II's in subs during Vietnam, and (gulp) the Cuban missile crisis. 😬 He was the head nuclear missle tech. He died with the secrets he kept, but of the 16 years he was in my life I know this...
We were locked, loaded, and ready to end the world. The Capt. over the intercom specifically said there was only one way out, by having "nothing happen." If we won, we lost. Be prepared to leave everything behind, and come back to nothing. (Reference to Cuba)
Also, we (the Navy) are everywhere, all the time. Esp where (we) are not supposed to be. We're always there. Even before (they) didn't want us to be "there."
He passed from compilations from a bone marrow cancer (hmmm... 😶) and lived a simple life as a diesel truck mechanic for a landscaping farm before that. Anybody who knew him always said he was a silent and humble giant, and could do/fix/repair anything.
I mean anything...
...always makes me wonder what exactly he experienced...
My grandfather was a engineer at a submarine base and he died from Leukemia.
@@absolutezero6423 Grotten, CT?
@@jayfantastic9309 Bangor Washington. He also worked at the Naval shipyard in Bremerton. West Coast native here lol.
@@absolutezero6423 lol, my old man was from KS, but stationed in N.C. and San Diego, mostly N.C. though. Much love West coast! ✌
I can vouch for what Jay says about his dad.
6 years as a Fire Control Technician (simply put, the guy that presses the launch button) on a ballistic missile sub in the 1980s.
Given the order, we'd have had all 16 ICBMs, each with 14 independently targeted 40 kiloton warheads, in the air in under 22 minutes from a cold start.
We wouldn't have hesitated to launch. It's how we were trained, it's how we were drilled. Time to think come before or after, but not during.
No increased deaths from it in my generation of submariners, however.
Better shielding, I guess.
But I did not know a single submariner that ever had a male child **while** serving on board a missile sub (I have two lovely daughter, myself).
My dad served in the Canadian air force during the cold war times as a radar technician and he built part of the DEW line, and he told me more then 'just a few' horror stories. Every day I wake up is a breath of relief.
Nope. No no no no no no no. I do NOT want this in my recommendations. NOOOOOO
Even those who are not dedicated Children of Atom may bask in his Glow.
"Elect a president who understands" Kyle Hill for president
The bigger thing is that advisors should be scientists, not politicians. For example, Trump basically just does whatever the first advisor he encounters suggests. Meanwhile, the one's who are qualified for their position (like Dr. Fauci) aren't politically motivated.
Well... you'd kind of need to replace all "presidents" simultaneously, and then convince all those nations to not develop something equally destructive (or more destructive). For instance... bacteria that consume plastic rapidly and replicate quickly... kind of a less severe grey goo scenario. Or just simple biologic weapons. Otherwise the one country that keeps the nukes wins.
Well that rules out Biden and Trump and the two parties of the military industrial complex.
@@saiyjin98 And really, every other country on earth with the capability! It is technically political, but it is also just good sense =)
He seems competent and soft spoken. He could pass for president... or Thor.
I'm a GenX fan who remembers the balance of terror of the Cold War. My 14-year-old watched this video, and afterwards, we pulled out my old copy of The Day After, with Jason Robards, Steve Guttenberg, and John Lithgow, about the destruction of Kansas City and the United States. He was engrossed by the movie and the despair of a meaningless end of civilization. The Day After is a movie that everybody should see or see again.
The Day After is pretty good, but check out the BBC's Threads. That movie takes you from the short period before WW3 to the decade after it.
What's confusing to me is how many people are here in the comments reacting to this video as if he is out here providing cutting edge information. It's frankly frightening that so many people have lived their entire lives, unaware of the concept of potential nuclear annihilation. I feel confused, like maybe there is something I am missing. Does he discuss anything here that hasn't been totally common knowledge for literally 3/4 of a century?
@@TheMfmccarthy Tbh most people aren't completely terrified of everything around them like we are. They just don't think about that sort of thing. Must be nice.
@@ChakkyCharizardwell it’s only logical, why waste time with worrying about something you have zero control over?
When I was a child of about 8 or 9 years old (I'm 72 now) the preacher at church, before his sermon, started telling the congregation about a new nuclear peace treaty between the United States and Russia. I felt like a 200 pound weight was lifted off my shoulders .... until he added the word ... "but ..." ...
Damn this video aged so well
You know it’s real when there’s no background music or sfx...
“Elect a president who understands anything”
The 2020ist of dreams
We're gonna have to postpone that dream until 2024 at least.
Me: Oh, so we're just coming right out and saying it then. *sips*
I was thinking elect a president who knows where he currently is and what office he his running for.
You and everyone like you are incapable of rational thought.
@@rummy98 yeah, that's really what I had in mind too.
as a person from Wisconsin I'd like to say for the record: "Oops"
If an alarm goes off and the only thing launched are interceptors, regardless of what those interceptors are armed with if no opposing bombers are found, nothing happens.
The interceptors are recalled, and return to base and everybody changes their underwear.
One thing I'd like to talk about that I read a couple years back: the U.S. government actually runs through this kind of simulation with each incoming president shortly after they take office. During the Cold War it was done almost religiously; the president would board Air Force One or whatever plane was being used at the time, and they would tell the president that full nuclear war was beginning. The Russians had launched a full scale nuclear attack on the United States, and it was now the president's decision whether or not to retaliate.
The presidents knew it was fake; it was a test to see how they would respond in this situation. Because make no mistake, as Kyle has pointed out for us this is a very real threat that could happen at any given moment, and the President should have an understanding of what that means, and have time to grapple with the gravity of this decision.
In every single administration, the president never pushed that button. They never gave the order to retaliate. U.S. military officials were actually rather alarmed about that particular fact getting into the hands of the Soviet Union, as they knew the MAD doctrine depended on the U.S. being willing and able to use the full might of its nuclear arsenal.
We live in really strange times, and have an even weirder president than we've ever had in living memory. Not to take away from what Kyle has warned us about, but its interesting to note that the greatest nuclear power in the world, when put to the test, has always blinked.
If you remember or wouldn’t mind, I would very much like to read that same thing. I personally believe you and I would like to have the source first hand if you have it.
Pfft, and you seriously believe that?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Let's not forget Stanislav Petrov who also did not retaliate when he was given false alarm reports(faulty machinery) that the US was committing a nuclear attack.
Well now the Russians know after you went around telling everyone.
@@insane_troll But they wouldn't want to risk it either. After all, what if this one particular president on this day is feeling a bit "brave" ?
"I wanna talk to you about the end of the world"
Great! Perfect listening before bed!
Kyle, I think you would enjoy the channel "Rare Earth". It's produced by Colonel Chris Hadfield, hosted by his brilliant son Evan, and wrangled by Evan's wife, Kata.
Horrifying stories presented in the most beautiful way possible.
Got the same feeling.
Thank you for this cold, hard reminder that the ground on which we walk is frail, uncertain, and not promised to anyone. We hang on the edge of the end here. We gotta be more thoughtful going forward.
The bomb is us. The bomb is Atom. And thus, we are Atom -- awaiting the day in which each of us gives birth to a trillion new lives.
My dad used to work on the roads of missile silos. The military moves the missiles around every so often they even had the right at some point to shoot on sight if you aggravated or passed the fence line.
Kyle: The End of History
2020 : hold my kill streak
2030s : Look at those 2020 rubes, they had nooooo idea.
Man, I’ve gotta give you credit Kyle, the way this was shot gave this a lot of weight. No music, just natural audio, natural visuals, and pure facts.
Sure, I’m now anxious as all heck, but frankly... I should be.
It's 2022, now, and Kyle's history erasing from accident is greater than ever by the fears of a madman erasing history on purpose.
Me: watching a video about ww3 possibility
Middle of the video: "INVEST IN STOCKS"
INVEST IN GOLD
Stonks 📈
Well, if there is no nuclear war and you invest in stocks, you’ll likely be better off financially in the long run, and if there is nuclear war, you’re dead either way so it won’t hurt you extra if you do invest, so..?
"reality is a simulation, the universe is a hologram, BUY GOLD, BYE!!!!"
NUCLEAR STONKS!
Kyle: "The president."
Me, internally: "Oof."
And yet the current president has been remarkably better at staying out of armed conflict with other nations than any other president in my lifetime, going back to Reagan.
@@tomralls1781 China.
@ You do know that "trade war" is just a turn of phrase, right?
Tom Ralls To an extent this is true, mainly due to circumstance however... Trump has done things that seem "good" in terms of keeping us out of war, like pulling soldiers out from the Turkish border... however that action, much like others, destabilized the region in such a way that it will eventually cause more conflict, and more American lives lost, and that's not to speak of the problems such a decision created for the people of that region.
@@tomralls1781 He also pulled out of a deal that keeps Iran from increasing their nuclear stockpile, I'm sure from watching the video I shouldn't have to tell you more nuclear weapons isn't a good thing.
"WWIII was almost started by accident." Yeah, I've heard all those stories. "A bear climbing a fence nearly caused a nuclear holocaust." Wowsers! Never heard that one before.
I have always tried to vote for sanity....I am 60 this month, and really tired of the Nuclear Threat. I remember grade school, fire alarms were also earthquake alarms and Nuclear alarms. We joked about bending over to kiss your ass goodbye. Cuz that is all you can do. Kyle taught me about cement walls or brick walls to hide behind, all you can do, right? I will vote for disarming ICBM's too....wish us luck.....
2021: you say 2020 was the worst year.
Hell no ! Dont say such things ..
No spoilers
Not this again. I'm sick of people saying every single year is going to be worse than the previous one.
As an IT professional, I no longer fear nuclear war. I fear cyber war. The ability for a country to control key systems (including defense systems, power, water, shipping, and transportation) as well as the ability to control messaging to citizens of that country through social media, making free thought and debate obsolete. Look around. Everyone is staring at a screen. Everything is "internet enabled". It's going on right under your nose...and you're paying for it.
don't worry man... I mean, yeah, you're 100% right but like, who even cares when we already know that in ten year tops something even worse will come up?
the world's been ending since as long as I can remember so just like, I live everyday like it's the last because I've been living on borrowed time since the day I was born
@@npc6817 cyber war is as terrible as a chemical, biological or nuclear war. It is truly in the weapons of mass destruction, yet it has not been taken seriously by the public as more than some 1337 hackers.
@@checker297 I'm not saying that's wrong because you're right, what I'm saying is I bet my ass it will get worse
Lol how is that worse than nuclear annihilation
@@birkirhafsteinsson1335 no one knows. But his scenario can be neutralized good old-fashioned Battlestar Galactica way: you can't hack the network, if there is no network.
So glad this wasn’t patriotic nonsense. Thank you.
グールにも愛が必要 Of course you can. It’s just very common for the topic of nukes to turn into “us good, them bad” even with extremely intelligent people.
There's still a chance it's nonsense. I'm not sure which study he's referring to, since he didn't list a citation for it, but I've read critiques of nuclear winter theories that cast some doubt if not outright debunk the claims of anti-nuke activist scientists like Sagan, et al.
For example, an explosion casting dirt into the atmosphere is contingent upon burst height and yield. Most soft targets will be hit with airbursts that will loft little to no dust. Hard targets may be hit with surface bursts, but these are likely to be lower yields that may be limited in their ability to reach the stratosphere, meaning the ejected dust will fall back fairly quickly.
Another example are "firestorms" in cities and forests that some claim will inject soot into the upper atmosphere. Most cities lack the fuel loading per unit area to sustain a firestorm. In addition, flattened homes are not conducive to fire since collapsed homes have difficulty receiving adequate airflow. And modern suburbs have large streets that may serve as firebreaks. Moreover, experiments on buildings, trees, etc. suggest that the thermal flash is not strong enough to set them alight, and the charring that does occur creates a cloud of smoke that blocks the surface from receiving more thermal radiation. Any fires that are created are also likely to be extinguished by the blast wave. This doesn't mean there won't be fires - Hiroshima was burned by a firestorm caused by knocking over charcoal stoves during breakfast - but a mass fire in a modern city is not likely to become a firestorm.
Patriotism is good, swine.
If ww3 happens. Just pray that where your standing in within the blast radius. Dying instantly and painlessly without you even realising it is a mercy at that point
"The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet. We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else."
Wernher von Braun