#New Zealand would be best place to face apocalypse: study

Looking for the most ideal setting to experience Armageddon? Scientists recommend New Zealand. 

In a study published this month in the journal Sustainability, a pair of researchers have found evidence that a variety of factors make New Zealand the best country to be in when doomsday arrives.

“Human civilization has undergone a continuous trajectory of rising sociopolitical complexity since its inception,” begins the study, before noting that global “collapse” is increasingly likely due to such “Earth System” problems as climate change. When, say, a nuclear holocaust does arrive, the day of reckoning may be more gently felt in certain countries that have “favorable starting conditions.” 

Of the authors’ “shortlist of nations” with the “greatest potential” for a relatively more pleasant apocalypse experience, New Zealand topped the list, which also included Iceland, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland. 

“We weren’t surprised New Zealand was on our list,” said Aled Jones, a study author and professor at the UK’s Anglia Ruskin University, The New Zealand Herald reported. “We chose that you had to be able to protect borders and places had to be temperate. So with hindsight it’s quite obvious that large islands with complex societies on them already [make up the list].”

That Kiwis have the most prime geography for humanity’s eventual annihilation doesn’t come as a shock to the mega-rich, either: Apocalypse-fearing billionaires have been shipping bunkers to the southwestern Pacific island for years. During the coronavirus pandemic, it also became a favorite quarantine destination among the Silicon Valley elite. 

The fact that Jones’ own nation made the list, however, was less expected. 

“We were quite surprised the UK came out strongly. It is densely populated, has traditionally outsourced manufacturing, hasn’t been the quickest to develop renewable technology, and only produces 50 percent of its own food,” Jones told the publication. “But it has the potential to withstand shocks.”