An article in the current issue of Scientific American puts forth the theory that if India and Pakistan engage in an all-out nuclear war, the smoke from the fires of their burning cities will bring about a nuclear autumn. The authors suggest that in the actual attacks, 20 million people will die outright. The nuclear autumn will result in global crop failures and a resulting famine that will kill a billion more.
If that were not bad enough, there would be a depletion of the ozone layer that would reduce the protection from UV radiation to that of the Antarctic area in summer. Even though the Sun would be partially obscured by smoke in the stratosphere, there would be a shitload more cases of skin cancer. And there would be UV damage to the surviving plants.
Unfortunately, the article is not available online, but there are similar articles out there.
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1 comment:
Well I always liked nuclear autumns to nuclear winters. It's the nice glowing colors you see in the atmosphere and the warmer climate that makes it, I think.
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