It’s common to want to feel prepared for anything that might be coming, and in these trying times, people are surely feeling more than a little uncertain.
If you’re rich, you have more options when it comes to feeling in control when the world is anything but.
That said, experts say there’s little point to buying nuclear war bunkers when they aren’t going to help anyone survive an actual nuclear war.
Last year, people spent more than $137 million building and outfitting bunkers, and that number is slated to grow by more than $50 million by 2030.
Experts like Alicia Sanders-Zakre say, however, that although the shelter might help ease anxieties, the business of surviving the end of the world is a bit more complex.
“Bunkers are, in fact, not a tool to survive a nuclear war, but a tool to allow a population to psychologically endure the possibility of a nuclear war.”
After all, people are going to need to eventually figure out how to survive on the surface of a now-destroyed planet. Radiation is, Sanders-Zakre says, “a uniquely horrific aspect of nuclear weapons.”
People who survive the fallout will still finding themselves unable to escape the long-lasting and devastating effects of radiation on the environment.
That’s without considering the immediate issues of food, water, and the fact that the social order would likely be irrevocably broken.
Nonproliferation expert Sam Lair agreed, telling the AP that successfully prepping for a doomsday scenario like this one is likely futile.
“Even if a nuclear exchange is perhaps more survivable than many people think, I think the aftermath will be uglier than many people think as well. The fundamental wrenching tat it would do to our way of life would be profound.”
That said, it’s not a terrible idea to at least have a plan for surviving in a world that looks vastly different than the one we’re used to.
You just never know, after all.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?
