Colder, drier and darker. Nuclear war will turn to the earth with a greater catastrophe than it was thought before
Researchers say that even some of these bombs would lead to catastrophic consequences: first, explosive waves and fires would have fallen on the ground, which would almost instantly destroy millions of people around the world; Secondly, radiation would cause cancer and genetic damage that would affect the Earth's population over several generations. In focus. Technology has appeared its Telegram channel.
Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! For the last 40 years, scientists have used computer modeling to find out what world is waiting for us if the nuclear war is still going.
For example, in 1982, using their knowledge in the field of chemistry and climate modeling, Atmospheric scientists, Paul Krutsen and John Birks, wrote a brief article, where they assumed that the nuclear war would lead to the formation of a massive cloud of smoke, which will entail nuclear winter. At that time, the researchers argued that this scenario would inevitably lead to the destruction of agriculture, and with it civilization.
A year later, American and Soviet researchers have confirmed for the first time that cities and industrial complexes affected by nuclear weapons will actually produce much more smoke and dust than burning the equivalent forest area. In addition, scientists emphasized that the global layer of smog eventually blocks sunlight, resulting in the usual Earth to us become much colder, dry and darker.
Simulation of researchers shows that the reduction of sunlight will reduce the global temperature by 10 ° C for almost a decade. It is assumed that cooling in combination with less sunlight required for plants photosynthesis will have catastrophic consequences for food production. As a result, the world is likely to be famine. Today, scientists use much more complex climatic models than those that were in the 1980s.
Researchers now believe that a gloomy future described 40 years ago can actually be even more gloomy. In a recent article, ecologists, led by Alan Workman from Rutgers University in the United States, claim that nuclear winter theory has helped to put an end to the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide during the Cold War. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, in fact, the first steps to reduce nuclear weapons in history.
Then they referred to the predicting the effects of nuclear winter for all living things on the planet. It is known that in the midst of the arms races, in the mid-1980s there were more than 65 thousand units of nuclear weapons. Due to the reduction of the nuclear arsenal, the number of units has decreased to a little more than 12,000, one third of which are in combat readiness.
This reduced the threat of a full-scale nuclear war, but made researchers think about whether the forecasts of 40 years ago were correct. Today, scientists have used new and more complex climatic models to predict possible climatic changes caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Researchers believe that the exchange of nuclear strikes between the United States and Russia will lead to the ocean is extremely cool and the world will essentially immerse themselves in the "small nuclear ice age", which will last thousands of years. It should be noted that there are 9 nuclear powers today: researchers' models assume that even a limited war between India and Pakistan can lead to the death of about 130 million people, and about 2.
5 billion will be deprived of food for at least 2 years. Scientific modeling allows us to look into a "nuclear future" without worrying. For the last 40 years, scientists have been studying what a nuclear future for the planet may be, which probably contributed to the adoption in 2017 of the UN agreement on the ban of nuclear weapons, which was ratified by the majority, but unfortunately not all nine nuclear powers .
It should be noted that in the same year the International Nuclear Weapons Elimination Campaign was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Working to Draw a Catastrophe, which may occur as a result of its use. According to the worker, the war in Ukraine again raised these fears to the surface. As a result, scientists are "even more important" to study the effects of nuclear weapons and ensure that as many people on the planet be informed of them.
In addition, scientists emphasize that they should focus on eliminating these weapons. According to Professor of Earth Science at California University of London, Mark Maslin, it is important for humanity to remember that the nuclear threat has not disappeared, and the use of a warhead will do the most of life on Earth for the millennium of the "nuclear ice age".