This Timeline Sucks

It’s been more years than I care to admit since I gave serious thought as to where I am in relation to potential nuclear targets. The last time was probably in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, early nineties? A long-damned time.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when my wife and I were heading out to pick up some Mexican food, and somehow, we got onto the subject.

A little Googling when we got home with our bounty brought me to a search result which made me wish I had never even touched my keyboard.

The short answer is that we’re well and truly screwed here in southern Arizona if someone decides to push the button.

According to research performed by David Teter, Russia probably has ~2.5 megatons targeted at my beautiful city of Tucson. Two-thirds of that is destined for Davis Monthan Air Force Base and the Tucson airport, while the last third is targeted at a critical communications site that I used to be able to see from my office when I worked downtown.

For comparison, 2.5 megatons is about 80 times MORE explosive power than both of the bombs (30kt total) the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

That means no more Tucson.

That means no more anything.

I don’t like this story line anymore. Can we switch to a new one now?

Nuclear conflict was a frequent topic in my early novels. But that was fiction. I wrote those stories when it seemed the threat of global thermonuclear war was a distant memory. Not something I saw in the news on a daily basis.

So, what now?

I really don’t know anymore. Up is down and down is up with geopolitics these days. All I know to do is keep on doing the things that make me happy, and hope that somehow, we all make it through this perilous time in one piece.

Again.