The picture of what nuclear war between two big boys of the exclusive club will look like
What will happen if the US and Russia engages in nuclear war with each other? Will Africa and other continents not part of the war be affected? Let’s check the list.
1. Within a week of the war, major cities in both US and Russia will be destroyed and 150 million tons of black smoke will enter the atmosphere.
2. It would rise into the stratosphere and lasting for years.
3. The black smokes absorbs sunlight preventing it from reaching the surface
4. 2 weeks after the war, as the smoke spreads around the globe, it gets dark and cold at the surface.
5. The sunlight that is absorbed by the smoke in the upper atmosphere heats it destroying the ozone layer.
6. This let’s dangerous ultra violet (UV) radiation to reach the surface. Even though some of the UV will be absorbed by the smoke, much more gets to the surface.
7. UV radiation destroys the DNA, the building blocks if life, which will lead to increased cases of cancer.
8. After two month, temperatures over continental land regions will plummet below freezing point and we will have nuclear winter.
9. Agriculture grinds to a halt and will not be possible for several years.
10. After two months mark, rainfall stops in every region of the earth and some falls as snow instead and this adds to the problem of agriculture.
11. After 4 months, famine begins as food storage starts to run dry. Cold, dark dry condition will prevent agriculture for many years.
12. After 2 years, most people on earth would have starved to death. A few people on coastline may survive on hunting/fishing gathering existence but they have to deal with cold and dark conditions and enhanced UV radiation.
13. The number of survivors will be extremely low. And most will be in the southern hemisphere far from the bombs l, surrounded by a warm ocean that will reduce the cooling.
14. After 4 years, temperatures slowly begin to rise, but will not be back to prewar conditions for another 20 years.
15. Rainfall also slowly begin to take place. Even 5 years after the war, skin cancer will continue to rise so is UV damage to plants.
16. It would take about 10 years for nature to begin to take over again. After 20 years, survivors will still have to stay away from highly radioactive areas.
17. All these can happen with the currently operational 4000 nuclear weapons in the US and Russian arsenals.
18. Even the use of just 100 nuclear weapons by any of the 9 nuclear nations, could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history and result in famines for billions of people.
By Prof. Alan Robock, a climatologist and distinguished professor from the department of environmental sciences at Rutgers University.