h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A brief prelude as to my thinking:

I woke up yesterday fumbled for the TV remote and turned on a TV documentary about earthquakes, and tidal waves and other disastrous phenomena.

And it concluded with something suitably dramatic about the dangerous planet

So I got to thinking, where one wouldn't be susceptible to, say, Tsunamis and began discounting various places moving more interior countries, but then like say, Switzerland for example, until I thought: new danger - Avalanches, so can't stop there...I then began to wonder if I should factor in things like political upheaval. Pakistan might be a reasonably safe place, apart from the frequent riots, military coups and the the threat of insurgency and murder from religious zealots.

So, summing all that up: where is the safest place in the world?

What about Britain? Politically moribund, geologically stagnant.

Or, indeed, vice versa.

B

I remember reading somewhere that the lifetime risk of dying from some form of adverse incident if you never even leave your house is 1/200. So I'd say nowhere is particularly safe.

Bielefeld, Germany.

Australia seems to be the safest place geologically - there's been no tectonic activity there since the Great Dividing Range was created. Central Australia is safe from tsunami, not much vegetation so no risk from wildfires, extreme weather is rare and the Great Artesian Basin provides some insurance against drought so long as we don't over-extract from it.

Wouldn't an easy life, but it'd be a relatively safe one.

Doesn't Australia have crocodiles?

Alice Springs doesn't. I suppose there's all the venomous snakes and spiders and whatnot, but we've got antidotes to most of those now.

Can't really beat Australia for political stability either.

But is it not home to the largest variety of poisonous snakes (or, indeed, poisonous anything) in the world? I heard once that it was always safer to look first under the toilet seat before sitting down; let's hope that this was an exaggeration for comedy effect

Most places are prone to some natural disasters - flooding, landslides and other climate related ones even outside major earthquake zones. So Australia is probably a good choice.

I've just had a thought: if, in films, the US President always gets loaded onto an aeroplane at the first sign of any danger, surely that's the safest place to be.

All those films are northern-hemisphere-centric. Anything south of the equator barely gets a mention. That's true for more scholarly medium too. I've been trying to research what would happen to Australia should the worst come to the worst, climate-wise, but there isn't much info out there.

As far as I can tell, the only thing Australia has to worry about is a worstening of the climate extremes we already deal with, and possible sea level rises, which the entire world will see anyway. I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world right now. I'm not worried about nature, I'm more worried about what the rest of the world will do if Australia does turn out to be the safest place in the event of a climate catastrophe.

I remember reading about someone who asked the same question in the early Eighties. He settled on some small, quiet islands off the coast of Argentina... and moved in just before the Falklands War unexpectedly began.

Won't the effects of sea level rises on Australia be worse, seeing as how it's on the bottom?

Regarding Australia - what about drought, el nino and the occasional wild fire?
Don't they also get pacific cyclones?

>> ... and moved in just before the Falklands War unexpectedly began. <<
Like that chap who moved to Guadalcanal before WW2.

And Australia after the nuclear holocaust - 'On The Beach' (Nevil Shute). Safest place on earth. Much good it did them!

Obviously I'm biased, but I'll go with Utah, U.S.A.. No serious dangers from animal life, political upheaval, racism, weather, drugs, or even crime. Not even any environmental disasters, although we're supposedly overdue for a 9.0 earthquake and there's a supervolcano nearby, but they've been going on about those for decades.

But what about that nasty sherriff who tries to steal ancient artefacts and get away with them on a circus train?

B

The vast majority of Australia will be ininhabitable in 100 years time but I guess it's pretty safe for now.

The safest places - those places where you might be able to grow some food and avoid the water wars - will be northern Europe, Canada and Russia.

~*~But what about that nasty sherriff who tries to steal ancient artefacts and get away with them on a circus train?~*~

Oh.............He's just the lovable rascal!