Bombs Away! Nukes Will Certainly Kill Our Planet

uploaded by Swan April 10, 2008 at 10:07 am
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Bombs Away! Nukes Will Certainly Kill Our Planet by Swan

So listen up India, Pakistan, Korea, Iran and any other country who is seriously thinking about exerting their nuclear muscles on another country.

According to a study in the April 7th issue of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a small scale nuclear war would not be confined to the selfish countries who might actually press their finger on the button.

The study partly confirms what we already know, that plants, animals, including humans would suffer or die under the strength of a global ozone hole that would remain for years after there were no nukes left to use.

Everyone knows about the enormous ozone hole discovered over Antarctica around two decades ago, however, scientists are now going with the belief that recovery will take years longer than previously thought.

Satellites and ground stations have been consistently monitoring the hole over the South Pole - and it's by using this information, that the original prediction is no more.

It was first thought that the hole would recover by 2040 or 2050, but scientists now believe that the earliest would be more like 2065. The discovery was at a time when the average person knew practically nothing about ozone holes and the use of chloroflurocarbons (CFC).

According to the scientists involved in the nuclear war study, about 40 countries possess enough plutonium or uranium to build substantial nuclear arsenals.

Richard Turco of the University of CaliforCFnia said:

"The potential devastation would be catastrophic and long term."

We've seen enough disaster movies, such as The Day After, (who could forget the world famous classics?) "On the Beach" and "Fail-Safe."

They at least give us a context in which to imagine what it would be like and the facts ARE frightening.

Alan Robock, associate Director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers' Cook College, said:

"It would be the largest climate change in recorded human history."

The Ozone hole over Antarctica is three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States with the latest measurements being around 11 million square miles - and that's without the use of nukes.

I've included satellite images of the changing sizes, which gives a better perspective.

In another study, scientists led by Owen "Brian" Toon of the University of Colorado, Boulder, analyzed potential fatalities based on current nuclear weapons inventories and population densities in large cities around the world.

His team focused on the black smoke generated by a nuclear blast and firestorms—intense and long-lasting fires that create and sustain their own wind systems.

For a regional conflict, fatalities would range from 2.6 million to 16.7 million per country. "A small country is likely to direct its weapons against population centers to maximize damage and achieve the greatest advantage," Toon said.

The most recent study had researchers construct a computer model of a regional nuclear war between Pakistan and India, involving 50 nuclear bombs, each the size of Hiroshima.

The effect was far more massive than previous studies done in the 1980s had suggested, even though these studies had imagined a full-scale nuclear war, the authors said.

Imagine, this would only be a fraction of a percent of the total explosive power of the world's nuclear arsenal.

How fast would these predictions accelerate if applied to the U.S., interfering and launching their own nukes?

Speaking of which, I wonder how much nuclear test blasts have contributed to the looming environmental disaster?

Pakistan and India are believed to have stockpiled at least 50 or more Hiroshima sized nukes.

"The world has become a far more dangerous place when the actions of two countries on the other side of the world could have such a drastic impact on the planet," study co-author Brian Toon, also of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Truer words have never been spoken. There is quite a bit more to this story, if you'd like to follow it up.

Sources:

Live Science.com/Environment
Regional Nuclear War Would Affect Entire Globe
by Andrea Thompson

Live Science.com/Environment
Ozone Hole Could Persist to 2065
by Alicia Chang

Science Daily
Largest-Ever Ozone Hole Observed Over Antarctica

Adapted from materials provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Amazon.com
Top Nuclear War Movies
by Mark Kloser

Live Science
Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth
(no byline)

Image Sources:

Lew Rockwell.com
The Horrors of Nuking Iran
by William Wedin Ph. D.

Random Thoughts
by Yosuke Yamahata

Live Science Image Gallery
Nevada Division of Enviornmental Protection