Environmental / Weather issues of 150 years

[welsh]

Hey Folks, this is renewing a topic raised earlier but currently archived. I am curious how you folks factor in time and weather into the game.

I am also attaching a doc that some of you might find interesting on the projected consequences of a limited nuclear exchange. Many predict that if nuclear war should occur, than the impact on global warming would be especially high. Even 150 years later those impacts will be felt.

I would also be curious if any of you are using other sources to help frame your post-apocalyptic environment. I kind of enjoyed the show Life after People, but given our historical timeline, those assumptions would need to be relaxed.

Your thoughts?

[kato13]

150 years is a long time for a system to recover.

Most of the oceanic animal extinctions that occurred after the cretaceous impact (dinosaur killer) were due to low oxygenation, yet this study
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0082242
seems to indicate that oxygenation returned to normal after such a major event in around 100 years.

However the study you mentioned might useful when planning a project as unusually cold weather would effect equipment and men. Crops that need less sunshine might be more of a focus.

All that being said 150 years is long enough that cycles could have changed so just about any weather could be possible.

[mikeo80]

In version 3, there was a variable weather generator. With appropriate GM modification, (where the team is, how tough the GM wants the weather to be), weather can be anything. The Damocles module shows winter at its' worst. Lonestar module shows what a hurricane can do. American Outback module shows what can happen to the desert SW after 150 years. As does Desert Search. The North West is shown with Final Watch module. Of course there is the classic movie Damnation Alley. EXCELLENT source material for really wild weather.

The books Alas Babylon, and On the Beach do not really deal with weather changes per say. Although you can argue that the radioactivity moving south in On the Beach IS weather.

My $0.02

Mike

[stormlion1]

We used to have a weather chart made up and weather was rolled up day by day. You never knew what you were going to get but could guess when it came to season. Winter was always so full of snow...

[welsh]

Not so sure 150 years is long enough for systems to recycle. Consider that the ozone depletion of the 20th century is still having an impact on atmospheric Ozone and that it is unlikely the Ozone layer will repair itself before 2050-2070 period. Add nuclear exchange and I'd guess that the climate conditions would be heavier.

Agreed Damnation Alley was kind of wild. I actually liked the climate impacts in Book of Eli (although I wasn't crazy about the film). Some of the weather impacts in a film like The Road, are not likely to have as much of an impact.

I recall some study about conditions in Bikini and the Marshall tests. While oceanic conditions had recovered, the islands themselves would take many years to recover. Not quite the consequences of that old flick Attack of the Crab Monsters, but still, we can imagine the consequences.

Harsh weather, increased climate change, and little care is likely to mean that most of the human infrastructure will crumble and may also have detrimental impacts on the environment- that old chemical plant that has no one to take care of it will eventually rust and leak. Meanwhile pumps in citiies will stop working leading to flooding in subway tunnels. Recent reports of climate change as well as the melting of Antarctic glaciers is likely to raise sea levels of 10-15 feet within 150 years- so coastal groups should take care.

[ArmySGT.]

According to Operation Final Watch, the earth is locked in a mini ice age and sea levels have dropped several meters.