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It's big.
It's scary,
and it has an appetite
for destruction.
Meet Godzilla,
King of the Monsters.
Think you're having a bad year so far?
How about if we woke
a dormant giant reptile
that shoots plasma beams of radiation
from its mouth?
This is WHAT IF and here's what would happen
Godzilla, or 'Gojira'
as its pronounced in Japan,
has been a popular cultural figure
for over half a century,
appearing in comic books,
television,
video games
and cinema.
With over 36 films made about this giant lizard,
we seem to know a lot about him.
Interestingly, each year
Godzilla seems to get bigger and bigger.
Some of the stories suggest
Godzilla has been in hibernation,
like the Siberian salamander,
which can stay frozen for four to five months
If global warming sets it free,
what exactly would we be in for?
Before we get into the grim details,
let's first look at what we know
about this massive beast.
Based on our most current films,
Godzilla is estimated
to be about 110 meters (361 ft) tall
and weighing somewhere between
14,000 tons (33 million lb)
and 164,000 tons (328 million lb).
Theoretically, the largest animal that can exist
without being crushed
by Earth's gravitational field is
Even if Godzilla's weight
was on the conservative size of 14,000 tons,
it would still be 14 times heavier
than this theoretical limit.
To withstand Earth's gravity,
he must have some pretty strong bones.
which states that as an object increases in size,
its volume will grow faster
than its surface area,
certain bodily functions
like the rate at which heat is lost,
the rate of digestion,
or the speed of oxygen
reaching the brain,
are dependent on mass
and would'nt work the same way
at Godzilla's scale.
From a biological standpoint,
in order to move around,
the fastest speed that
brain signals can travel is
so at 110 meters (361 ft) tall,
it would take over a second
to send a signal
from Godzilla's brain to its feet.
Talk about lag!
It would also need a massive heart
weighing thousands of tons (millions of lb)
to pump all its blood through its body.
And to power this giant organ,
among others,
Godzilla is going to need a lot of food.
"Hi, can I get the extra-extra-extra-extra
large combo, please?
Oh, it's, uh, not for me,
it's for a friend."
To put this in perspective,
a blue whale will eat around 500,000 calories
per mouthful.
So what exactly would it be dining on?
Luckily, Godzilla has a taste for radiation,
just as flowers absorb
electromagnetic radiation
from the sun to survive.
This helps to power his radioactive
fire shooting abilities.
No, I'm not making this up.
If we're going by modern standards,
an angry skyscraper-sized Godzilla
would likely trigger tsunamis,
earthquakes,
and utter chaos.
To add insult to injury,
Godzilla's radioactive plasma jets
would spread radiation poisoning
to any living creature nearby for miles,
making Chernobyl seem like a safe zone!
If we tried to blow it up,
because of all the nuclear energy
Godzilla snacks on.
we'd be facing a bomb
100 times the size of Tsar Bomba,
the largest bomb ever exploded.
So we'd either have to find a way
to cooperate with it
or build giant robots
for the ultimate showdown!
As a short term solution,
Godzilla could be a tourist attraction
for the most extreme travellers,
that is if he doesn't swat
any incoming jets
from the sky.
A creature of its magnitude
could harness a lot of energy,
especially with so much nuclear power
surging through it.
Theoretically, Godzilla has the potential
to supply 1200 households
with energy every day.
That is, of course,
if we could find a way to restrain him.
Or maybe a giant hamster wheel could work?
I'm just spitballing here.
But in the long term,
we'd have to deal with the massive costs
to repair cities
and to move people to safe areas.
We could also be looking at a potential
nuclear fallout
that would leave several places
simply uninhabitable
for many generations.
If we found a way to communicate with the beast,
maybe it could be used for good,
like battling invasive alien species,
catching rogue missiles
or using Godzilla as a wake-up service
for the heaviest sleepers.
Yawning, "Thanks, Godzilla."
At the very least, its massive presence
could help unite the world
in a mission for survival and peace,
which could stave off international conflicts.
Maybe an army of murder hornets
might help slow him down?
That's a story for another WHAT IF.