Posted on 12/11/2006 1:36:44 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Small nuclear war could lead to cooldown
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer 15 minutes ago
Some of the scientists who first advanced the controversial "nuclear winter" theory more than two decades ago have come up with another bleak forecast: Even a regional nuclear war would devastate the environment.
Using modern climate and population models, researchers estimated that a small-scale nuclear conflict between two warring nations would cause 3 million to 17 million immediate casualties and lead to a dramatic cooldown of the planet that could lead to crop failures and further misery.
As dire as the predictions seem, they fall short of nuclear winter. That theory says that smoke and dust from an atomic war between the superpowers would blot out the sun, plunge the Earth into the deep freeze and cause mass starvation, wiping out 90 percent of the Earth's population, or billions of people.
The new scenario offers no estimate of the number of deaths from the environmental effects of a regional nuclear war.
Still, scientists said the scenario points to the danger of small nuclear states obtaining atomic warheads.
The study, presented Monday at an American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, was described as the first to document in detail the climatic effects of a nuclear war on a regional scale.
Some climate experts not connected with the research questioned some of the assumptions made in the studies.
For example, the studies assume that smoke is mostly made up of soot. But other organic particles culd cause smoke to scatter and not stay aloft in the atmosphere as long, lessening the impact, said scientist Steve Ghan of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hey. Two birds, one stone. Iran & the planet. Win-win.
"Always look at the bright side of life"
BS pure and simple.
Speaking of course regarding Global warming. Those whackie scientists. Always being glass half empty!
Sounds as if this is being suggested as a panacea for "global warming."
Well, there you go. It's the solution to "global warming."
Yeah, but think about it. We could get the global warming nuts to shut up just by nuking all over the Middle East.
Carl Sagan had to admit he was wrong when he predicted a mini nuclear winter from Saddam lighting the oil fires.
In fact, I wonder if Saddam believing the nuclear winter hype torched the fields for this reason.
Odds.
Middle East 2 to 1
East Asia 4 to 1
Europe 6 to 1
North America 10 to 1
Africa 20 to 1
Iran will save the world for Al Gore.
No wait, we calculate just how many bombs will reverse global warming and drop them on Mecca.
A nuclear war is a maybe proposition. A sizable volcanic eruption will accomplish the same thing at some point in time.
Kind of hard to be morally opposed to a volcanic eruption, though.
The supposed "nuclear winter" scenario has always bugged me. Nuclear weapons are best detonated hundreds of feet above ground for maximum affect. And an above ground explosion (no matter how large) would not cause a dust cloud to blot out the sun. Am I missing something?
Maybe we should test this theory.... say, starting in Iran!
Supposedly Krakatoa threw enough dust up into the jet stream to make things dim for a few days...
Second small nuke war thread today. Interesting that several groups are working on predicting the global effects of a small nuke war. Small would be what? 200-400 detonations?
The thermal updraft of the air burst fireball draws dust and debris upward, which is how the "stem" of the "mushroom cloud" forms. This debris, depending on size of the blast can be sent 30,000 to over 100,000 feet into the atmosphere and enter the jet stream.
In an early test radioactive fallout was precipitated out of the atmosphere and ruined batches of film being made by Kodak in Rochester NY.
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