New edition? Death from the Skies

[moozoo]

I would love it if Phil was to create a new edition.
Being an optimist... I would love the new edition to cover how we might survive some of the disasters, in particular supernova and GRB's.
Could people on the opposite side of the world survive a supernova or GRB in very long term underground habitats?

[Gillianren]

No.

[moozoo]

No.

no to a new edition or No to surviving.

If no to surviving then why.
Yep I get the ozone being destroyed . I get the food chain being destroyed for a long time.
But you can grow food inside under lights. Even if the O2 level dived (it probably would) you can split water to make oxygen.
If can'nt be worst than a colony on the moon or on mars.

[Gillianren]

No to surviving. Your suggested solutions require too much advance warning, and we simply wouldn't get it.

[moozoo]

No to surviving. Your suggested solutions require too much advance warning, and we simply wouldn't get it.

The book indicate that the survivors (on the opposite side of the world) might have a few months.
In any case we could build a small number of shelters in advance (right now) containing frozen eggs and sperm as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

A mass extinction of humans may have already occurred.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory.

So you need to maintain dna from say 20000 people in a mostly self sufficient bunker containing say 100-1000 women for x years.
The book doesn't indicate how many years the earth would need to be habitable again.
Since the GRB kills ever one including those in deep bunkers on one side of the world you would need more than two of them (three?)
I said "mostly self sufficient bunker" since they could make trips to the other dead side of the world to raid tinned food from supermarkets.

Would it take ten years for the earth to be habitable again? 100, 1000? The book doesn't cover that.