Posted on 03/01/2007 5:22:58 PM PST by blam
'Nuclear winter' may kill more than a nuclear war
19:00 01 March 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Debora MacKenzie
A regional exchange of relatively small nuclear weapons could plunge the world into a decade-long "nuclear winter", destroying agriculture and killing millions, according to a new study.
Weapons experts to consider that small-scale nuclear exchanges are now more likely than the massive US-Soviet exchanges feared during the Cold War.
In the 1980s, scientists calculated that such exchanges would put enough smoke into the atmosphere to shade the Earth from the Sun, causing a nuclear winter.
Now scientists have re-calculated the likelihood of nuclear winter using modern, vastly improved climate models and a more likely modern scenario for small-scale nuclear war. Brian Toon, head of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Alan Robock of Rutgers University in New Jersey, both in the US, predict less cooling than the 1980s modellers. However, they predict the cooling would last longer, with potentially devastating consequences.
Different targets
The pair modelled the impact of 100 explosions in subtropical megacities. They modelled 15-kilotonne explosions, like the Hiroshima bomb. This is also the size of the bombs now possessed by India and Pakistan, among others.
The immediate blast and radiation from the exchange of 100 small nuclear bombs killed between three million and 16 million people, depending on the targets. But the global effect of the resulting one-to-five million tonnes of smoke was much worse. “It is very surprising how few weapons are needed to do so much damage,” says Toon.
(Excerpt) Read more at environment.newscientist.com ...
Good Lord, I haven't seen it in ages! Thanks!
But we did have unusual el ninos continuing from 1991, 1992, 1993 and into 1994. Oh and don't forget andrew in 1992 as well. And we did have that record blizzard in 1991. Of course it could all be traced back to the oil wells.
The ending totally freaked me out the first time I saw it. Much better done than "The Day After" IMHO.
Appreciated.
If sufficient amounts of dust is thrown into the air, and if that dust stays in the air for a considerable time, then less sunlight will reach the ground, and surface temperatures will decrease.
LOL! I remember that one, too. And the crying "Indian" who cried over me littering and polluting...who wasn't even an Indian to begin with! *Rolleyes*
I'm actually pleased to see so many rail against all the BS that has been shoved down my throat and in my face since I was a pre-teen.
Remember a young Laura Dern crying on Donahue that President Bush was going to cause a nuclear war? Yeesh!
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Hollywood doesn't know which end is up.
Remember the Statue of Liberty buried on the beach at the end of 'Planet of the Apes?' I've walked along that piece of shoreline dozens of time.
The first time I saw that movie as a teen, I asked my Dad "How did the Statue of Liberty make it from Staten Island to a beach in CA?" LOL!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Didn't this "study" come out like 3 months ago or am I having Deja Vu all over again?
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Jonathan Adler March 2003
The oil-well fires billowed smoke for months, spreading soot, oil mists, and deposition for hundreds of miles in all directions, contaminating air, water, and soil. (For those concerned about global warming, the fires released nearly 500 million tons of carbon dioxide, an amount greater than the industrial emissions of all but a handful of nations in 1991.)
You Maniacs!
Loved that scene. LOL
How many nukes were exploded above ground in the 40’s and 50’s?
No nuclear winter from those.
At least it would put an end to global warming.
Remember Carl Sagan and the Kuwaiti oil wells burning?Yes, it was a mistake he admitted.
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