Turkey on Tuesday morning warned the conflict in Syria will be the flashpoint for World War III as global superpowers back opposing sides.
“If this proxy war continues, after this, let me be clear, America and Russia will come to a point of war,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told Anadolu news agency.
Doomsayers have been predicting an all-out nuclear war since the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. While the two giants became locked in the Cold War, seven other countries became nuclear: Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, there are 15,350 nuclear warheads in the world in 2016, more than 90 percent of which belong to Russia and the US.
If humanity does descend into another global war, there are a number of tricks that could maximize your chance of survival.
Stay south
Since all of the world’s nuclear powers are in the Northern Hemisphere, stay south of the equator.
Countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina are temperate with plenty of space to grow food, and since they’re well out of the way, you’re unlikely to be targeted.
If you head to Australia, it’s probably best to avoid Alice Springs, due to the United States’ top secret facility at Pine Gap.
According to the classic post-apocalyptic fiction “On The Beach” by Nevil Shute, Melbourne is an excellent bet. The plot suggests that if nuclear war breaks out in the Northern Hemisphere, the Victorian capital is likely to be one of the last places the radiation cloud reaches.
If war spreads, you could always go farther south to Antarctica. It will be chilly, but with adequate supplies and shelter, you could survive several months.
Surviving the blast
A United States government paper from 2010 says people at ground zero have no chance. If you’re a few miles away, you’ll see a bright flash in the distance and the shockwave will hit you within seconds. Keep your mouth open so your eardrums don’t burst, and start running: You’ll have about 10 to 15 minutes to escape the radiation, reports The Sun. If you know where to find a bunker, get into it as fast as you can.
Escaping the fallout
“We have more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over,” Hillary Clinton said as US secretary of state in 2010.
However, no one knows if that means wiping out life, or destroying the Earth altogether. Some scientists predict the tremendous amounts of smoke from repeated atomic detonations would eventually block out the sun, causing a nuclear winter, in which case, the only way to survive will be to go underground.
A number of millionaires are already building bunkers, like the Atlas Missile Silo in Kansas, which can keep 70 people alive for five years with a hydroponic vegetable garden, enormous water tank, generator and wind turbine.
However, considering Bikini Atoll is still unlivable more than 60 years after America’s nuclear tests, they might need a new strategy.
Apocalypse
While World War III might be inevitable, a nuclear apocalypse is extremely unlikely, as no one wants to be responsible for the first strike. And while you might want to avoid the warring countries, you could probably survive by eating fish under the northern lights in Iceland, making the most of Switzerland’s neutrality by holing up in a mountain chalet, hunting animals in remote parts of Canada, or setting up a self-sufficient farm at home.