It’s hardly unexpected that the prospect of conflict with the most devastating weapon of mass destruction is keeping more and more people up at night in the backdrop of an increasingly tense global environment. With so many nuclear bombs already in circulation, the world is dangerously close to apocalypse. The results of recent studies are pessimistic in this regard.
The repercussions of a nuclear war would be devastating. Nuclear explosions pose a direct danger to a large population. The long-term impacts of radiation and other environmental degradation will be felt by the survivors. Researchers from Rutgers University intended to expand their recent predictions of the worldwide repercussions of nuclear war beyond the immediate area of fighting. The problem of malnutrition received particular attention.
Climate change after a nuclear war was modeled, along with its effects on agriculture and fisheries in various regions of the globe. Several war scenarios, including a major clash between Russia and the United States, were examined by the group. Massive volumes of dust and soot would be released into the air from each of these wars.
Computer models of conflict show that a global nuclear war would kill hundreds of millions of people in a matter of minutes, and an additional 5 billion would perish from starving in the years that followed, even in nations that were never hit by nuclear bombs. Nature Food was the publication that detailed the study and its findings.
Under the guidance of the UN, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was signed in 2017. Sixty-six nations have ratified it as of this writing. None of the nuclear-armed governments, however, signed on. As if things weren’t bad enough, Russia recently stated that it will be suspending US inspections of its sites under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), an agreement between Russia and the United States to decrease strategic nuclear weapons. Because of this, the situation is quite stressful.
Therefore, it is not unexpected that even theoretical analyses of the consequences of a nuclear battle on the running of the globe are required. Rutgers University’s climate scientists have recently produced one. It was made with the help of a forecasting program called Community Earth System Model. This research attempted to foresee how the war will affect agricultural output (primarily maize, wheat, rice, and soybeans), livestock grazing land, and fisheries.
Six different nuclear confrontations of varying magnitudes were analyzed. It was determined that even a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have the impact of decreasing the world average nutritional value (in calories) by 7%. in 5 years. This 7 percent, researchers stress, would be larger than the greatest anomaly recorded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) since 1961.
The United States and Russia are the world’s two greatest nuclear powers. What could possibly bring them to war? A catastrophic decrease in world caloric output. The typical output might fall by as much as 90% in only three to four years. This might cause a worldwide food shortage that claims the lives of 5 billion people.
The biggest crop loss would occur in the mid-latitudes, which means that the world’s top food producers, including the United States and Russia, would be hit the hardest by such a conflict. Therefore, export limits on agricultural items would likely be implemented, leading to a serious disruption in food supply in nations heavily reliant on imports, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.
Heating the stratosphere would also deplete the ozone layer, leaving Earth more susceptible to damaging UV rays and reducing crop output.
