Pipes can't be reconstructed quickly and can be blown up again later.
My guess southern hemisphere might have some chance of survival if SHTF so that's where I will be heading. Most people will die gruesome prolonged deaths from starvation, broken bones or radiation, only a fraction will be vaporized instantly.
Are you aware that nukes were set off forty to sixty times a year for two decades? In 1962, 140 nuclear explosions. Over 2000 nukes have gone off.
Two cities have been nuked. They are thriving cities today. The planet has not been blown up. It is not a hellscape. Crops didn’t fail. Even the worst nuclear disasters have had very limited effect beyond their immediate vicinity.
Follow Dory’s advice: keep on swimming. The world is not ending this year.
Those nukes went off sequentially, not all at once. Of course spreading effects across many years would lead small effects that could be mostly ignored.
Look I'm not saying it's an impossibility but I don't think it's very likely any time soon.
> Most people will die gruesome prolonged deaths from starvation, broken bones or radiation
Most people die a pretty shitty death from cancer / degenration / dementia. I can't see how you can escape that, it awaits us all .(btw why the south? Are they immune to nuclear winter / food shortages / climate change?)
Something with wind streams partially shielding southern hemisphere from winds in northern hemisphere. So by the time fallout reaches southern hemisphere, it will be partially diluted. Of course, assuming AUS/NZ/BRA/ARG won't get nuked as well, then it might be moot.
Maybe I am overly pessimistic, but I've seen my share of corp/gov dysfunctionalities and nothing gives me any assurance current "leaders" would stop before blowing up the planet.
