Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Duck and Cover

How long can you hold your breath?
ER — (archived)

Your're right. Although duck and cover methods wouldn't help you much if you were too close to the detonation, the hugh areas that would be marginally damaged could greatly reduce casualties by even the most rudimentary "take cover" procedures.

Some precautionary methods are rather questionable, however. I remember one government official from a more recent administration (God! how I wish I could find that reference!) declaring that it wasn't that difficult protecting yourself from a nuclear blast, even one relatively close by; all you had to do was jump in your swimming pool and swim to the bottom. The water would protect you from flash burns, neutrons, gamma radiation, debris, and the shockwave from all but the nearest hits. Technically, the man was correct! What he didn't explain was how did you know exactly when to jump in.

As in all nuclear warfare, everything is turned upside down. A purely defensive act like civil defense efforts could be interpreted as an offensive move: making extraordinary efforts to protect your people (say, by practicing evacuations and setting up rural staging areas for urban populations) revealed that you were preparing to absorb a second strike and consequently more likely to launch a first strike. Both the US and USSR accused the other of this.

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