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'Small' Nuclear War Could Trigger Catastrophic Cooling
Live Science ^ | March 26, 2014 | Charles Q. Choi

Posted on 03/28/2014 12:43:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Even a relatively small regional nuclear war could trigger global cooling, damage the ozone layer and cause droughts for more than a decade, researchers say.

These findings should further spur the elimination of the more than 17,000 nuclear weapons that exist today, scientists added.

During the Cold War, a nuclear exchange between superpowers was feared for years. One potential consequence of such a global nuclear war was "nuclear winter," wherein nuclear explosions sparked huge fires whose smoke, dust and ash blotted out the sun, resulting in a "twilight at noon" for weeks. Much of humanity might eventually die from the resulting crop failures and starvation.

Today, with the United States the only standing superpower, nuclear winter might seem a distant threat. Still, nuclear war remains a very real threat; for instance, between developing-world nuclear powers such as India and Pakistan.

To see what effects such a regional nuclear conflict might have on climate, scientists modeled a war between India and Pakistan involving 100 Hiroshima-level bombs, each packing the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT — just a small fraction of the world's current nuclear arsenal. They simulated interactions within and between the atmosphere, ocean, land and sea ice components of the Earth's climate system.

Scientists found the effects of such a war could be catastrophic.

"Most people would be surprised to know that even a very small regional nuclear war on the other side of the planet could disrupt global climate for at least a decade and wipe out the ozone layer for a decade," study lead author Michael Mills, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, told Live Science...

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: climatechange; globalcooling; iceage; nuclearwar; nuclearweapons
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Russia still has slightly more nuclear weapons than the USA, Chuck.
1 posted on 03/28/2014 12:43:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

small. 100 nukes. don’t sound small.


2 posted on 03/28/2014 12:47:38 AM PDT by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Agenda journalism based on mights and coulds


3 posted on 03/28/2014 12:54:06 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: GeronL

They’d love for us to unilaterally disarm, trusting that the other nuclear powers would follow suit.


4 posted on 03/28/2014 12:57:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Sarah Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Which is amazingly stupid


5 posted on 03/28/2014 1:02:21 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think that if there ever was a nuclear war, global cooling would be about the least of our worries.


6 posted on 03/28/2014 1:06:18 AM PDT by 22202NOVA (I stand with Ukraine...warts and all.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
They’d love for us to unilaterally disarm, trusting that the other nuclear powers would follow suit.

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who do not.

7 posted on 03/28/2014 1:08:46 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: 22202NOVA

Frankly, if you went out and asked a thousand folks to rank their worries in life...nuke weapons, climate change, and nuclear reactor safety rank around number 532. Journalists always fail to take into account the reality of life.


8 posted on 03/28/2014 1:10:56 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why this? Why now???


9 posted on 03/28/2014 1:18:17 AM PDT by PastorBooks
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

0bamao will save us all from the Gorebull Warming but having a nuclear war with Pooty Poot.


10 posted on 03/28/2014 1:21:47 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

0bamao will save us all from the Gorebull Warming by having a nuclear war with Pooty Poot.


11 posted on 03/28/2014 1:23:01 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: PastorBooks

Like that “offhand remark” by Mr. Obama being more worried about a smuggled nuke in NYC than the Russians in Crimea? They’re up to something, I would guess. Remember, all parts of the octopus coordinate with one another.


12 posted on 03/28/2014 1:23:18 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Sarah Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The US and Soviets did a lot of nuke testing in the past. Really BIG nukes too. So, where was the global cooling then?


13 posted on 03/28/2014 1:25:09 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

*cool*


14 posted on 03/28/2014 1:30:31 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: equaviator
Just the one Soviet “Tsar Bomba” was 58 megatons or the equivalent of 1,570 of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki weapons. Why didn't that do it?
15 posted on 03/28/2014 1:31:14 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Sarah Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
These findings .....

An entire planet based on, "these findings"


I'VE found something ...

In the beginning was the Word ...

16 posted on 03/28/2014 1:31:48 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: GeronL

The nook war advocates in here never cease to amaze me. Yeah, lets hope there is one just to see what happens. Right?


17 posted on 03/28/2014 1:32:41 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Good news, the fix for global warming has been discovered, and we can get rid of Pakistan...


18 posted on 03/28/2014 1:34:37 AM PDT by Wayne07
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Did the "researchers" use the same climate models that are currently the laughingstock of the modeling and simulation world? The same ones that have flaws too numerous to enumerate here?

Even if they are right (even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then) so what. Nuclear winter isn't going to deter an unstable regime any more than a "gun free zone" sign deters a mass murderer. Liberals...unrealistically expecting bad people to act rationally over and over and over again. Sheesh. We'll be keeping our nuclear deterrent. I'd rather be alive and cold rather than hot (briefly) and dead.

19 posted on 03/28/2014 1:51:30 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: chessplayer

The US and Soviet Union didn’t conduct testing of all sorts of nuclear devices for nothing. Don’t you remember?


20 posted on 03/28/2014 1:53:18 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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