[sterlind]

The most surprising bit of this for me was nuclear winter. I thought the idea fell out of favor, but they cite a recent Nature paper claiming up to 99% of the population of the global North would starve.

Do any governments stockpile food? Afaict, the US doesn't keep emergency stocks of non-perishables. Though according to the paper it would take ~8 years for food production to pick back up substantially, so that might just be too long.

[matthewdgreen]

A while back I noticed a motivated group of people on HN pushing very strong claims that the science of nuclear winter had been discredited. I did some reading to see if I could find any science backing their claims, and didn't find much that comforted me. (Basically some reasonable scientists argued that early estimates of nuclear winter were overblown, but their more reasonable calculations still showed full-scale nuclear war would be catastrophic.)

When I see many different people parroting the same unusual scientific claim on Internet sites, I tend to think there's a single source with an agenda. I hope this isn't true, because it made me worry that some organized group was trying to promote the idea that "nuclear war isn't so bad," which is... yikes.

[AnimalMuppet]

I don't think any government stockpiles enough food to keep a significant fraction of its population alive for nearly a decade.

But in the US, on the Great Plains, there are all these towns with grain elevators. I'd guess that what's in that grain elevator could feed the population of the town (plus surrounding farms) for several years. (Yeah, I know, wheat or corn, by itself, doesn't have all the nutrients people need...)

[moralestapia]

If money/resources were no object, is it actually possible to store 10 years worth of food for, let's say, a single person?

I'd imagine almost everything, even perfectly stored would spoil by that timeframe.

[LinuxBender]

If money/resources were no object

If money is no object then yes it can be done. One can order massive amounts of freeze dried food and store a lot of treated water. Officially it is good retaining 97% nutrients and taste for 25 years. Unofficially it's good until the container decomposes. I have enough to last about a year of daily consumption and that was a serious investment but has more nutritional value than gold or silver.

There are a few companies that can do custom orders and there is one consumer company that sells an assortment of different size freeze dryers [1]. Watch videos on how those work before contemplating getting one as they are noisy and involve time and effort. My local grocery store sells a few generic meat, egg and vegetable freeze dried foods, butter, beans, etc... Even some unhealthy stuff I guess for psychological effect as comfort food.

Nutristore [2] is one of the more affordable brands I get. Tastes better than MRE's from the 90's but can be bland. One must add their own desired seasonings or sauces. There are other brands that have better taste and more options but they also cost a lot more. All of this requires adding water. One should watch videos on how to properly treat water for prolonged storage.

[1] - https://harvestright.com/

[2] - https://nutristorefoods.com/

[pomatius]

What will happen regarding food: we (third world countries) will receive a massive wave of immigrants from those civilized first world countries who just mutually annihilated themselves like savages. This almost certainly will trigger further wars and famine around here. So yes, as the article says, there will be no winners. The entire world will lose.

[1letterunixname]

Nuclear Winter is a doomer idea. It can't happen.