# How well would modern society handle the dinosaur killing meteor if it happened today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2021, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856 "2021-02-27T00:30:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/221 "2021-03-08T09:28:08Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > balloon based airships. Using the geothermal energy to produce hydrogen and running on fuel cells. Sorry, just to get back to this, as it goes to my previous point - fuel cells using _what_ platinum? Airships filled with what - not helium, they don’t have any - so lovely explode-y hydrogen? And powered by what? Not fossil fuel engines, they don’t have any fossil fiels. So, electrical power? Using _what_ for the batteries and magnets? They don’t have sources of lithium or rare earths. They don’t even have lead or copper. So you’re left with some kind of ragtag fleet cobbled together from old fishing boats, powered by woolen sails, to move an entire island’s population somewhere else? Better hope they also have a damn good idea where they’re going ahead of time… ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/222 "2021-03-08T16:56:50Z")
> [@Blue\_Max](#): > > consider having to evacuate the whole state of Florida - where do they go? How do you convince them that they need to move to something like the Australian Outback or Central Africa? Made additionally difficult by the fact that while we could be pretty sure that low-lying Florida would be a bad place to be, I don’t think we’d be able to tell until shortly before impact whether the Australian Outback or Central Africa – or anyplace else – might be ground zero. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/223 "2021-03-08T17:25:19Z")
Using the platinum recycled from the many sources, including all the catalytic converters from the now useless cars. Yes hydrogen produced using their relatively abundant geothermal energy. Recycling lithium from batteries that already are there. Ragtag? Even then maybe. Needing to move an entire island’s population? No. Able to move some brave explorers to figure out what conditions are where and then some who are willing to be colonists? Slowly (but not by other human migrations standards) spreading a modified fairly modern civilization to other points on the globe. . . Separate question for anyone who would have an informed guess - The first decade would be expected to a global winter, got that. But as that subsides what would the climate be like? Lots of CO2 and other climate warming emissions now in the atmosphere and few plants to capture and sequester it. Does the winter get followed by major global warming? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/224 "2021-03-08T18:02:46Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Using the platinum recycled from the many sources, including all the catalytic converters from the now useless cars. “Many sources” - what in Iceland would those be _other than_ cars? You might want to look into how much platinum you’ll need for all these new fuel cells you’re going to make. Remember to factor in the multi-generational recycling losses before you get away from the island… > [@](#): > > Yes hydrogen produced using their relatively abundant geothermal energy. Lovely explode-y hydrogen. Oh, and remind me - how are you confining it to your airships? Lots of rubber in Iceland, is there? > [@](#): > > Recycling lithium from batteries that already are there. So you think lithium has 100% recycling efficiency over generations? And the lithium in the batteries currently in Iceland are enough to power your airship fleet? And everyone who’s using those batteries is just giving them up? And the motors? Where are the REEs coming from? Oh, wait, let me guess - recycling, right? > [@DSeid](#): > > Ragtag? Even then maybe. _Waterworld_ was not a documentary nor a blueprint for rebuilding civilization. Ragtag recycled ships run by inexperienced sheep farmers who’ve never sailed out of sight of land is not how the world was populated. > [@DSeid](#): > > Slowly (but not by other human migrations standards) spreading a modified fairly modern civilization There’s not going to be anything like that. After the first five generations of scraping a living by most everyone farming, they will be so regressed as to not be capable of doing anything else without outside help - and no outside help will be coming. It’s not like it’s [a new story.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed) They just have to look at the next island over. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/225 "2021-03-08T18:21:04Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Ragtag recycled ships run by inexperienced sheep farmers who’ve never sailed out of sight of land is not how the world was populated. No. It was populated by people with rafts and outrigger canoes and no knowledge of how the world was shaped, of compasses, of where the continents and islands were. I don’t think Iceland would repopulate the planet in twenty years, or in a century. And they might not pull it off at all. But it’s not necessary to posit full scale modern technology in order for people to get around. And all of modern civilization was created by people originally living as subsistence farmers and hunter/gatherers. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/226 "2021-03-08T18:28:54Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > No. It was populated by people with rafts and outrigger canoes and no knowledge of how the world was shaped, of compasses, of where the continents and islands were. You’re seriously selling [the skills of those people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_navigation) (and pre-compass navigation) short. And more importantly, they (Austronesians and Vikings) were lifelong mariners. Unless the Icelanders are building their sailboats and leaving in the first generation, they won’t be (and see what I said about everyone needing to be farmers first). Also, the ones doing it in rafts and outriggers weren’t doing it in the subArctic. That took longships and knarrs. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > But it’s not necessary to posit full scale modern technology in order for people to get around. I’m not. Like I already said, I can see it happening _from some other island_. One with trees, metals, fossil fuels and other resources already on it. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > And all of modern civilization was created by people originally living as subsistence farmers and hunter/gatherers. Not on Iceland, it wasn’t. It was created in the warm river valleys of the temperate regions first, and then exported. The kind of place that lets you have a surplus, to support all the recyclers and antibiotic producers and ship repurposers and hydrogen plant workers… ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/227 "2021-03-08T18:46:52Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Gasoline has a shelf life, and it’s months, not decades. You could equip some autos with a wood gasifier in order to run. Of course in the long term other parts on the autos will eventually wear out and not be able to be replaced. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/228 "2021-03-08T19:34:04Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > You might want to look into how much platinum you’ll need for all these new fuel cells you’re going to make. Okay. > **[Bosch to drastically reduce platinum use in future fuel cells - Autoblog](https://www.autoblog.com/2019/05/13/hydrogen-fuel-cell-platinum-reduction/)** > > Toyota and Hyundai are also cutting down on use of the precious metal. > [@](#): > > “There has been lots of optimization work concerning platinum in fuel cells,” Achim Moritz, product manager for mobile fuel cells at Bosch, told _Reuters_ . > > “If you look at a diesel catalytic system, there is about the same amount of platinum content you need for a fuel cell,” he added. And rubber? Lots of rubber than can be recycled into a small fleet if that is what you need. But not sure how much rubber is in modern safer airship designs. > **[How airships could return to our crowded skies](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191107-how-airships-could-return-to-our-crowded-skies)** > > Airships lost out to conventional aircraft after a series of disastrous crashes. But now safer technology could be the key to their return. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/229 "2021-03-08T21:57:22Z")
Every place that has water big enough to use them on, there are people who own sailboats. Already-existing sailboats, with already-existing sails, that don’t need to be scrounged together from anything. And they’ll have much better navigation than their ancestors could have dreamed of, because most of the GPS satellites won’t even notice the impact. But while sailboats would be quite handy for delivering critical supplies, or eventually recolonizing depopulated areas, they won’t be how the survivors will make initial contact with each other. That’d be done by radio. Even if all of our communication infrastructure were destroyed, there’d still be hams talking around the globe. There are radios you can power by turning a crank by hand, if need be. In fact, that’s the reason for the existence of ham radio: To enable communications in scenarios where modern infrastructure has completely collapsed. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/230 "2021-03-08T22:34:58Z")
The GPS constellation is managed from the ground pretty continuously. They might last a month or two up there functioning well, but soon enough they’ll drift off station, lose enough time sync that positions derived from them are no good, etc. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/231 "2021-03-08T22:46:28Z")
The knowledge of how to navigate by stars and by compass is still in existence, though. It isn’t in many people’s heads, though I expect some use it as a hobby and maybe some are trained to do so in possible emergencies; but it’s going to be in libraries. If we’re going to presume an Iceland (or for that matter another area) mostly untouched by the initial strike and fires, I’d expect that as soon as people figure out what’s happened there’d be an effort to make sure that sort of knowledge wasn’t lost. – I wonder if the magnetic field might be thrown out of whack? Even if that’s a possible result, however, it would rapidly be obvious. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/232 "2021-03-09T02:22:29Z")
So I was trying to find the answer to my own question of what happens to the climate after the several years of global winter and found this - > **[MassExtinctionCausedBySootAndAsteroid\_2019GL085572.pdf](https://www.patarnott.com/atms748/pdf/Class2020/MassExtinctionCausedBySootAndAsteroid_2019GL085572.pdf)** > > 6.12 MB Iceland was of course mentioned by @Chronos based on > [@Chronos](#): > > Everything there is built to tolerate extreme cold, and they’ve got abundant geothermal power, and already use it to grow food But from this fairly recent model attempt there is this as well - > [@](#): > > Our model results suggest the polar coasts and surrounding open oceans provide the most probable refugia from the impact winter. Biota in these regions would have been best acclimated to the prolonged night produced by soot emissions, because they survive periods of low SSWR seasonally (Whittle et al., 2019). Furthermore, even though the high‐latitude coasts show a moderate increase in the number of freezing days in our simulations, this climate was already cool and seasonal in the latest Cretaceous, with biota conditioned to survive subfreezing temperatures (Figure S5) (Bowman et al., 2013; Tabor et al., 2016). In addition, these regions show some of the smallest postimpact cooling due to a combination of increased ocean heat transport and longwave downwelling by aerosols (Figures 2, 3, and S1). Interesting. Another advantage. Not too far from [the global seed bank in Norway.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/233 "2021-03-09T03:55:37Z")
Speaking of Norway, how would that nation’s hydroelectric power endure a several years winter? Would be functional on the other side? Assuming not damaged seismically. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/234 "2021-03-09T05:01:11Z")
Following the catastrophic bushfires at the end of 2019, hydroelectric and storage dams in the Australian high country suffered badly from heavy siltation caused by the loss of ground cover that was all burnt off. Fallen stumps, logs, and other burned timber choked up the water surfaces. Its all fixable, if you have an organised state with heavy machinery, hydrological engineers and time and resources and nothing else to worry about. Not fixing them before you pressed the go switch could destroy your power-generating gear. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/235 "2021-03-09T05:12:06Z")
Post-tsunami you can have your pick of the watercraft. You don’t even have to bother going down to the coast or get your feet wet, they’ll come to you. [This one](https://www.mby.com/news/controversy-over-boat-swept-up-onto-roof-in-tsunami-23869) was swept 400 metres inland. [This 175,000 ton ship](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367870/Japanese-earthquake-tsunami-175k-tonne-ship-dumped-Kamaishi-habour.html) was picked up and parked on land. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/236 "2021-03-09T06:29:40Z")
Rainfall would undoubtedly be so affected that most of the hydro would be gone. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/237 "2021-03-09T07:06:39Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Okay. How many cars in Iceland are diesel, versus the much less platinum-rich petrol ones? And the Bosch research facility _in Iceland_, where they can get the details for all this tech from, is where, exactly? Or are our subsistence sheep farmers going to be supporting a state-of-the-art research facility, as well? > [@DSeid](#): > > And rubber? Lots of rubber than can be recycled The state of rubber “recycling” is not quite where you seem to think it is. Current rubber recycling consists of “grind it up and use the crumbs” and “burn it”, with a _tiny_ amount of devulcanization - because that’s an expensive, highly technical process that mostly uses some very toxic substances. So now your sheep farmers are messing around with toxic, explosive silane. Or producing toluene from all that crude they don’t have. Etc. Good thing they’re _totally_ able to maintain modern health and safety standards… Where are we putting the hazardous material PPE factory, again? > [@DSeid](#): > > But not sure how much rubber is in modern safer airship designs. Because Iceland is well-known as a world centre for cutting-edge airship design? So now our sheep farmers are producing Vectran, Kevlar, Tedlar, Polyurethane, and Mylar? My, my, not a lot of room for sheep in among all these factories… And no, only one of those is going to be got from recycling. I hope the Icelanders have an adequate supply of water bottles… And you linked to a bunch of designs that haven’t been scaled up from prototypes because (as it says about one) they are “too risky and expensive” even for modern un-asteroid-fucked technocrats to produce. Should be a cinch for hardscrabble sheep farmers in their copious free time. > [@DSeid](#): > > Another advantage. Not too far from [the global seed bank in Norway.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault) 1,940 km is only “not too far” for modern transport. It’s another planet for a subsistence sheep farmer. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/238 "2021-03-09T07:11:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Every place that has water big enough to use them on, there are people who own sailboats. Already-existing sailboats, with already-existing sails, that don’t need to be scrounged together from anything. That miraculously stay that way for generations? Modern sails don’t last forever, and they’re hard to replace without (multiple) modern plastics factories. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/239 "2021-03-09T07:23:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > They might last a month or two up there functioning well Impact events on Mars kicked up debris that made it to Earth. Any big enough impact is going to impart escape velocity to some of its debris. I’m sure enough debris will make it high enough that at least some GPS satellites are going to be hit. and once some are hit, some are going to go from that debris. It won’t be the full on Kessler cascade you’d get in LEO, but they’re not going to be unaffected. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856/240 "2021-03-09T10:58:28Z")
Material doesn’t have to be taken into the bunkers. Given time to prepare, the selected few could prepare CACHES of material for use when they come out of the bunkers. One great advantage is that the survivors will not have to “reinvent the wheel”. They’ll know about the germ theory of disease, they’ll know to keep cesspits away from water sources, they might not have GPS for navigation over land or sea - but they’ll have an abundance of quartz clocks and watches with accuracy that John Harrison could only dream of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-would-modern-society-handle-the-dinosaur-killing-meteor-if-it-happened-today/933856.md?page=13)