In a war without quarter, the lethal consequences would cover much of the United States. Survivors could avoid fatal radiation exposure only when protected with adequate food, water, and medical supplies. Even then, millions of people would be exposed to radiation high enough to reduce disease resistance and increase the incidence of subsequent fatal cancer. Decreased disease resistance could lead to death from everyday infections in a population deprived of adequate medical facilities.
And the spread of diseases from contaminated water supplies, non-existent sanitary facilities, lack of medicines and millions of deaths could reach epidemic proportions. Not surprisingly, the international group Physicians for Social Responsibility has called nuclear war “the latest epidemic”. Current Nuclear Warfare Capabilities Would Have Devastating Impacts on Earth. If detonated, smoke and soot from nuclear explosions would block the Sun, causing crop loss around the world, sinking global temperatures and expanding sea ice that would throw the planet into a Small Nuclear Ice Age that could last up to thousands of years.
BATON ROUGE — Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought the threat of nuclear war to the forefront. But how would modern nuclear detonations affect today's world? A new study released today provides strong information on the global impact of nuclear war. The study's lead author, LSU Department of Oceanography &, Assistant Professor of Coastal Science Cheryl Harrison, and the co-authors conducted multiple computer simulations to study the impacts of regional and larger-scale nuclear warfare on Earth's systems, given current nuclear warfare capabilities. Nine nations currently control more than 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world, says Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
In all scenarios simulated by the researchers, nuclear firestorms would release soot and smoke into the upper atmosphere, blocking the Sun and causing crop loss around the world. In the first month after nuclear detonation, average global temperatures would plummet by about 13 degrees Fahrenheit, a greater temperature change than in the last Ice Age. Cheryl Harrison, Lead Author and Assistant Professor in the Department of Oceanography at LSU & Coastal Science and Computer Center & Technology. Ocean temperatures would drop rapidly and would not return to their pre-war state, even after the smoke clears.
As the planet cools, sea ice expands more than 6 million square miles and 6 feet deep in some basins, blocking major ports, such as the port of Tianjin, Copenhagen and St. Sea ice would spread to normally ice-free coastal regions, blocking transport across the northern hemisphere, making it difficult to transport food and supplies to some cities, such as Shanghai, where ships are not prepared to deal with sea ice. The sudden drop in ocean light and temperatures, especially from the Arctic to the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, would kill seaweed, which is the basis of the marine food web, essentially creating an ocean famine. This would stop most fishing and aquaculture.
Researchers simulated what would happen to Earth's systems if the U.S. UU. And Russia used 4,400 100-kiloton nuclear weapons to bomb cities and industrial areas, causing fires that expelled 150 teragrams, or more than 330 billion pounds, of smoke and black carbon that absorbs sunlight, into the upper atmosphere. They also simulated what would happen if India and Pakistan detonated about 500 100-kiloton nuclear weapons, resulting in 5 to 47 teragrams, or 11 billion to 103 billion pounds, of smoke and soot, in the upper atmosphere.
This study shows the global interconnection of Earth's systems, especially in the face of disturbances, whether caused by volcanic eruptions, massive forest fires or wars. LSU & Coastal Science Department of Oceanography Assistant Professor Cheryl Harrison presents recent research findings on the impacts of nuclear war on Earth systems at the Threat Initiative conference. Volcanic eruptions also produce particle clouds in the upper atmosphere. Throughout history, these eruptions have had similar negative impacts on the planet and civilization.
Oceans take longer to recover than land. In the U.S. Marine ecosystems would be greatly disturbed by both the initial disturbance and the new ocean state, resulting in long-term global impacts on ecosystem services, such as fisheries, the authors write. The destructive effects of explosions extend miles from the point of detonation of a typical nuclear weapon, and the lethal consequences can cover communities hundreds of miles downwind of a single nuclear explosion.
Since then, several multilateral treaties have been established with the objective of preventing proliferation and nuclear testing, while promoting progress in nuclear disarmament. Both countries also threaten nuclear use to deter an adversary's attack, perhaps by cyber means, against critical nuclear command and control infrastructure. And because nuclear funds were so focused, the link between regional economic benefits and nuclear weapons created an inertia that made it extremely difficult to reduce nuclear weapons programs after their lifespan had expired. Only strategic deterrent forces, armed with conventional capabilities (offensive attack and aerospace defense), non-strategic nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons, are effective deterrents in regional and large-scale wars.
The most immediate effect of a nuclear explosion is an intense burst of nuclear radiation, mainly gamma rays and neutrons. The State Department document on the low-performance option of the W76-2 says: “There is no such thing as safe nuclear war or low-risk nuclear attack, regardless of its magnitude. Nuclear winter Substantial reduction in global temperature that could result from the injection of soot into the atmosphere during a nuclear war. In any case, to avoid situations of nuclear escalation, a realistic and prudent nuclear policy requires serious planning of diplomatic signage and non-nuclear military options to seek the end of the war.
It must also maintain advanced intelligence collection and recognition capabilities to detect threats that could require nuclear or other responses. Ally or partner and then use explicit or undeclared nuclear threats to deter the United States and its ally or partner from using all their capabilities to challenge China's action. Combined with China's political, economic and military influence augmented by increasingly capable conventional forces, the threat of nuclear escalation can create coercive pressure on U. .
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