Why mushroom, rat and insect will be on the menu in an asteroid apocalypse

ASTEROID impacts are a certainty of our future, it is not a case of if, it is a case of when the next major impact event occurs, but researchers are already planning to farm the foodstuffs that will ensure humanities survival in the aftermath of a nuclear winter.

These foodstuffs are not for the squeamish and those who will survive will have to hold their noses and gulp down a menu of rat, insects and mushrooms.

All of these living things that humanity will be left to snack upon can survive for long periods of time in complete darkness.

The reason for this is because an asteroid impact will throw so much dust into the upper atmosphere that it could block the sunlight needed to feed plants.

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs created a nuclear winter that lasted for 18 months, triggered tsunami, volcanoes and earthquakes and dimmed sunlight so much that photosynthesis of plants stopped.

Journalist of science and TIME editor Bryan Walsh suggests mushrooms will be a crucial food source for human survival if such a major asteroid impact were to occur in the future.

In his new book ,”End Times,” Mr Walsh studies how natural and man-made apocalyptic scenarios can threaten the existence of humanity.

The writer suggests three potential catastrophes, asteroid impacts, supervolcano eruptions, and nuclear war.

All of these events would create dust in the atmosphere that would blot out the sun.

Walsh suggests an apocalyptic event will, ”blot out the sun, and even the best-prepared survivalist, a master of the wilderness, will starve to death along with everyone else.

“In order to survive, he says, people would need to adopt sunlight free agriculture.

“This means cultivating mushrooms, rats, and insects.”

66 million years ago the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs created and explosion that was 6,500 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

A major asteroid impact will have a word changing affect on the worlds climate and agriculture and the biosphere as a whole.

It could result in a new species reaching dominance on our planet, just as the dinosaurs were succeeded by the mammals after the last major impact event.

Also, in the event of a nuclear war Mr Walsh said: ”Such rapid and drastic cooling could make farming impossible, even in those regions spared by the missiles.”