I love this quote from @pluralistic because it reminds me of me - we're both of the generation which was convinced that there was literally no future, because nuclear war was certain to happen before we got old.
@ianbetteridge@pluralistic oh wow. me too. I always thought I wouldn't see 40. I think there's a particular age and time where the status mundi really impacted us that way; I've met only a handful of people who expressed feeling the same. I'd wondered if I was over-sensitive.
@rstein@ianbetteridge@pluralistic Yes, and we should, but that won’t stop the process we have started. Climate change is an accumulative process with high inertia. Scientists tell us even if we reached zero emissions today it would take thousands of years for the atmosphere to get back to a nomimal, non-life-threatening state. The train has left the station and there’s no slowing down anymore.
@oleiade@ianbetteridge@pluralistic So do nothing and keep on?
Accelerating all the time?
There is ongoing back to 80ies normal, but there is a chance to avoid doom.
@ianbetteridge@pluralistic The impact this had on the generation growing up in the 80s is not I don’t think realised at all today. I remember being terrified of the threat. It was part of life, see When the Wind Blows, TV public service announcements, documentaries, even chart hits like Two Tribes, 99 Red Balloons, you couldn’t escape it.
About 2/3 of my generation in the UK—at least those I've discussed it with—have some degree of PTSD from growing up during the Cold War.
The similarity with today's Gen-Z protestors coming out against climate change is glaringly obvious. And the degree of establishment repression of dissent is similar, too.
@billseitz@ianbetteridge@alexanderdyas The UK essentially ended civil defense planning after 1962. Very small, densely populated island: by the late 60s, the projected death toll in an East/West exchange was 50% dead in the first 3 hours, rising to 90% of initial population dead 6 months later. The Soviets had a LOT more short-range nuclear-tipped missiles than ICBMs, and the UK was wall-to-wall military targets.
@cstross@JonSparks@alexanderdyas@ianbetteridge@pluralistic Was going to invoke Threads on this, err, thread. Also, growing up in Leeds, we had this helpful pamphlet to visualise exactly how we'd die.
My mates and I worked out that if we heard the sirens, we'd have enough time to run into the blast zone, so we'd burn, rather than die of radiation poisoning.
Not a great feeling when you're 12.
Sorry. Did you say PTSD? Perhaps.
You can download it here... http://www.roc-heritage.co.uk/uploads/7/6/8/9/7689271/leedsandthebomb.pdf
Mind you, a 1Mt ground burst on the Town Hall was quite unlikely. More likely: half a dozen 250Kt air bursts on various targets (the Vickers tank factory out west, Yeadon Airport, the M1/M62 junction, the main railfreight depot, etc). Even less survivable!
@cstross@JonSparks@alexanderdyas@ianbetteridge@pluralistic Yep, me too. Lived in Woodhouse, school was City of Leeds (now council offices I think)
I always thought the town hall seemed like an odd choice of target. Perhaps the university might've been an option?
I read a discussion with the guy who wrote it, and he was really keen to be as objective as possible about it. Leeds council also wrote to the leaders of US and USSR to encourage nuclear disarmament! http://www.roc-heritage.co.uk/uploads/7/6/8/9/7689271/leedsandthebomb2.pdf
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