There are chemistries far more threatening to life on earth than nukes. - that could be considered the first success of arms control, the world backed off from chemical weapons
Can you expand on why you think chemical weapons would be that threatening? They seem to be much easier to deal with, both in terms of prevention and in terms of total damage done. Most chemicals used in chemical weapons (e.g. sarin and VX) break down fairly fast when exposed to the environment- this is a major reason why so many chemical weapons are designed with binary systems.
Most chemical weapons break down rapidly, yes. That is why those chemicals were used as battlefield weapons—for an army, rending the field of battle impassible for any length of time is a major bug, not a feature.
There are known toxins that are far more persistent, and they could be deployed as WMD far more horrific than very large explosions. None of them have been used, or even proposed as weapons, but this speaks of the restraint of weapon makers, generals and politicians, not the space of what the laws of nature make possible.
I would prefer not to give examples because there is a diffrence between people learning of this while studying in general and providing searchable hits for “How to end the wirld”, but go find a list of poisons by toxicity, and read up on their specific properties. There are /many/ things worse than nukes. Either we are in a timeline surrounded by an void of death or humans can in fact be trusted with the keys of Armageddon.
In order to kill someone with a poison, the poison has to at least touch that person, and many poisons need much more than skin contact to be lethal: they have to be ingested, injected, or inhaled. Explosions tend to expand rapidly. Chemicals, however, tend to sit in one place; you need a way to disperse it. Yes, a handful of botulinium toxin could theoretically kill every human on the planet, but you’d never be able to get it inside every person on the planet.
In other words, [citation needed].
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if one could kill more people with a few vials of smallpox virus than with a single nuclear weapon...
I agree, what you’re referring to is very nasty stuff, and yes, you could easily kill a lot of people with it. You’ll still have trouble wiping out an area larger than a stadium with it, though. (It’s certainly possible to do though, if you have enough resources. Maybe something involving crop dusting planes, I dunno.)
On the bright side, anyone plotting to use that particular agent to kill people with is probably going to end up killing themselves with it before they manage to get anyone else.
Can you expand on why you think chemical weapons would be that threatening? They seem to be much easier to deal with, both in terms of prevention and in terms of total damage done. Most chemicals used in chemical weapons (e.g. sarin and VX) break down fairly fast when exposed to the environment- this is a major reason why so many chemical weapons are designed with binary systems.
Most chemical weapons break down rapidly, yes. That is why those chemicals were used as battlefield weapons—for an army, rending the field of battle impassible for any length of time is a major bug, not a feature. There are known toxins that are far more persistent, and they could be deployed as WMD far more horrific than very large explosions. None of them have been used, or even proposed as weapons, but this speaks of the restraint of weapon makers, generals and politicians, not the space of what the laws of nature make possible.
I would prefer not to give examples because there is a diffrence between people learning of this while studying in general and providing searchable hits for “How to end the wirld”, but go find a list of poisons by toxicity, and read up on their specific properties. There are /many/ things worse than nukes. Either we are in a timeline surrounded by an void of death or humans can in fact be trusted with the keys of Armageddon.
In order to kill someone with a poison, the poison has to at least touch that person, and many poisons need much more than skin contact to be lethal: they have to be ingested, injected, or inhaled. Explosions tend to expand rapidly. Chemicals, however, tend to sit in one place; you need a way to disperse it. Yes, a handful of botulinium toxin could theoretically kill every human on the planet, but you’d never be able to get it inside every person on the planet.
In other words, [citation needed].
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if one could kill more people with a few vials of smallpox virus than with a single nuclear weapon...
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I agree, what you’re referring to is very nasty stuff, and yes, you could easily kill a lot of people with it. You’ll still have trouble wiping out an area larger than a stadium with it, though. (It’s certainly possible to do though, if you have enough resources. Maybe something involving crop dusting planes, I dunno.)
On the bright side, anyone plotting to use that particular agent to kill people with is probably going to end up killing themselves with it before they manage to get anyone else.
Just for fun: “A Tall Tail” by Charles Stross