Even regional nuclear war would cause global famine, scientists warn
- Life
- DPA
- Published Date: 04:48 | 15 August 2022
- Modified Date: 04:58 | 15 August 2022
Scientists are warning that even a regional nuclear war could trigger famines worldwide.
Researchers led by Lili Xia and Alan Robock from Rutgers University in New Brunswick (U.S.) carried out model calculations that simulated the effects of such a war through soot particles in the higher atmosphere.
The soot would block part of the sunlight and lead to crop failures.
Their findings are presented in the journal Nature Food. The study was submitted to the journal in 2021 and was subject to a lengthy peer review process.
"In a nuclear war, bombs aimed at cities and industrial areas would set off firestorms and spew large amounts of soot into the upper atmosphere which would spread globally and would rapidly cool the planet," the scientists write.
Xia, Robock and colleagues designed several war scenarios and simulated the impact on the production of a selected number of food items over the following ten years.
In the smallest calculated scenario, 100 nuclear bombs with an explosive force of 15000 tonnes each would hurl about five million tonnes of soot into the upper atmosphere.
The simulations suggest 27 million people would die directly, and a further 255 million people would die from famine in various regions of the world.
The researchers also calculated the effects of a nuclear world war with 4400 atomic bombs of 100 000 tonnes explosive power.
This would drastically reduce the food calories available for humans, in some countries by about 99 per cent each. Worldwide, more than five billion people would die, i.e. more than half of the world's population.
The figures do not take into account the consequences of radioactive contamination. "These data show us one thing - we must prevent nuclear war from ever happening," Robock said. A ban on nuclear weapons is the only long-term solution.
In a commentary in Nature Food, Deepak Ray of the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul (U.S.) wrote that the work "is a step forward from previous studies."
It provides new assessments of food security after nuclear war at the national and global levels under a range of war scenarios.
However, the number of crops included was severely limited and there are some unclear individual aspects that should be analysed. He found that all in all, however, the scientific findings from this study serve as a clear warning.
Researchers led by Lili Xia and Alan Robock from Rutgers University in New Brunswick (U.S.) carried out model calculations that simulated the effects of such a war through soot particles in the higher atmosphere.
The soot would block part of the sunlight and lead to crop failures.
Their findings are presented in the journal Nature Food. The study was submitted to the journal in 2021 and was subject to a lengthy peer review process.
"In a nuclear war, bombs aimed at cities and industrial areas would set off firestorms and spew large amounts of soot into the upper atmosphere which would spread globally and would rapidly cool the planet," the scientists write.
Xia, Robock and colleagues designed several war scenarios and simulated the impact on the production of a selected number of food items over the following ten years.
In the smallest calculated scenario, 100 nuclear bombs with an explosive force of 15000 tonnes each would hurl about five million tonnes of soot into the upper atmosphere.
The simulations suggest 27 million people would die directly, and a further 255 million people would die from famine in various regions of the world.
The researchers also calculated the effects of a nuclear world war with 4400 atomic bombs of 100 000 tonnes explosive power.
This would drastically reduce the food calories available for humans, in some countries by about 99 per cent each. Worldwide, more than five billion people would die, i.e. more than half of the world's population.
The figures do not take into account the consequences of radioactive contamination. "These data show us one thing - we must prevent nuclear war from ever happening," Robock said. A ban on nuclear weapons is the only long-term solution.
In a commentary in Nature Food, Deepak Ray of the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul (U.S.) wrote that the work "is a step forward from previous studies."
It provides new assessments of food security after nuclear war at the national and global levels under a range of war scenarios.
However, the number of crops included was severely limited and there are some unclear individual aspects that should be analysed. He found that all in all, however, the scientific findings from this study serve as a clear warning.
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