Scientists reveal exactly what a nuclear winter would look like - with starvation for BILLIONS up to 8 years after a global war
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Scientists in Pennsylvania reveal exactly what a nuclear winter would look like – with starvation for billions of people up to eight years after a global war.
The experts say a nuclear winter – a feared scenario following a nuclear war – 'would cause an unfathomable loss of life' numbering billions due to crop loss.
Corn, the most important crop in the world, would not be able to grow, as it would not have enough warmth or sunlight.
As a result, those who survive the devastation of nuclear bomb blasts would be tasked with surviving widespread famine, the scientists say.
It's well known that nuclear weapons – the most dangerous weapons on Earth – release vast amounts of energy in the form of blast, heat and radiation.
Smoke from fires started by nuclear weapons would rise into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun.
The resulting darkness would mean freezing temperatures, crop failure, mass starvation and death – what we know as a nuclear winter.
'If we want to survive, we must be prepared, even for unthinkable consequences,' said study author Yuning Shi, plant scientist at Penn State University.
Nuclear winter is a term for what climate and the environment would be like following a nuclear attack or resulting nuclear war. Smoke from the fires started by nuclear weapons would rise into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun. The resulting darkness would mean freezing temperatures, crop failure, mass starvation and death
In a world following a nuclear war, corn crops would wither and die, plunging the world into chaos with mass starvation
As it stands, nuclear weapons have been deployed twice in war, by the US against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II.
But an expert previously described a nuclear winter as a real and 'horribly contemporary' risk due to Russia's war on Ukraine.
For their study, Shi and colleagues predicted how various nuclear winter scenarios could impact global production of corn, the most widely planted grain crop in the world.
This hugely 'global significant' crop also known as maize is grown extensively as food for both humans and livestock, with vast areas of land dedicated to global production.
But because of corn's importance, the crop can represent the expected fate of agriculture overall in a nuclear winter – meaning other popular crops like rice and wheat would suffer a similar fate.
Using computer models, the experts simulated corn production in 38,572 global locations under the six nuclear war scenarios of increasing severity.
For the various scenarios, sunlight–blocking soot injections into the atmosphere ranged from five million tons to a whopping 165 million tons.
As expected, the level of decline in corn crops would vary, depending on the scale of the conflict, the team found.
Image shows relative changes of global rainfed maize production by year using a planting date and maturity type adaptation strategy for the 5 million ton soot–injection scenario (a) and the 150 million ton soot–injection scenario. Damage of the 5 Tg scenario is mostly on the Northern Hemisphere, but the 150 Tg scenario demolishes maize production globally
The researchers say: 'Nuclear wars would cause an unfathomable loss of life and genetic resources, but also a prolonged nuclear winter that would reduce agricultural area and productivity for years'
Nuclear winter is a term for what climate and the environment would be like following a nuclear attack or nuclear war.
The scientific theory of nuclear winter sees detonations from nuclear exchanges throw vast amounts of debris into the stratosphere.
This ultimately blocks out much of the sun for up to a decade, causing global drops in temperature, mass crop failure and widespread famine.
Combined with radiation fall–out, these knock–on effects would see millions more perish in the wake of a nuclear war – even if they are far outside of any blast zone.
A regional nuclear war, which would send about 5.5 million tons of soot into the atmosphere, could reduce world–wide annual corn production by seven per cent.
However, a large–scale global war injecting 165 million tons of soot into the atmosphere could lead to an 80 per cent drop in annual corn yields.
An 80 per cent drop in global crop production would have catastrophic consequences, leading to a widespread global food crisis.
In the most severe scenarios, demand for maize would 'increase by several–fold compared with current seed demand', the team say, while seed production and distribution could be 'severely limited'.
But even a seven per cent drop in global crop production would have a severe impact on the global food system and economy, likely resulting in increased food insecurity and hunger.
Because of the damage to local and global ecosystems, people will have to rely on food grown on personal land and local allotments to survive.
People may also need to plant 'cool season crops' such as potatoes – but even then there'll be no guarantee that seeds or tubers will be widely available.
'The more severe the nuclear war, the deeper the reversion to primitive forms of production as the production ecosystem degrades,' the team add.
Terrifying: The mushroom cloud from the atomic explosion over Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, showing the destructive potential of nuclear weapons
An injection of 165 million tons of soot into the atmosphere would also dissolve the planet's ozone layer. In the stratosphere is the ozone layer, a thin region that absorbs almost all of the sun's harmful ultraviolet light
Additionally, an injection of 165 million tons of soot into the atmosphere would dissolve the planet's ozone layer, which shields us and other living things from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.
The blast and fireball of atomic explosions produce nitrogen oxides in the stratosphere (the layer of Earth's atmosphere where the ozone layer is mostly located).
'The presence of both nitrogen oxides and heating from absorptive soot could rapidly destroy ozone, increasing UV–B radiation levels at the Earth's surface,' said Professor Shi. 'This would damage plant tissue and further limit global food production.'
The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, warns an all–out nuclear war and subsequent nuclear winter 'would be devastating for humanity'.
'Nuclear wars would cause an unfathomable loss of life and genetic resources, but also a prolonged nuclear winter that would reduce agricultural area and productivity for years,' the team add.
'A severe disruption of supply chains and commerce can aggravate this loss of productivity, leading to regional or global famines.
'As the climate recovers, high UV–B radiation could further damage crops, with effects manifesting years after the nuclear conflict.'
Nuclear weapons have been deployed twice in war, by the US against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a series of nuclear threats since the start of the war on Ukraine.
Russia's invasion has triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war.
Russia and the US are by far the biggest nuclear powers, together holding around 90 per cent of the world's nuclear warheads – enough to destroy the planet many times over.
In September, Putin warned the West he was not bluffing when he said he'd be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
A few days later, he said the US had created a 'precedent' by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.
Daily Mail
