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Limited Nuclear War Would Decimate Ozone Layer
New Scientist ^ | Catherine Brahic

Posted on 04/07/2008 2:21:06 PM PDT by blam

Limited nuclear war would decimate ozone layer

22:00 07 April 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Catherine Brahic

Apart from the human devastation, a small-scale nuclear war between India and Pakistan would destroy much of the ozone layer, leaving the DNA of humans and other organisms at risk of damage from the Sun's rays, say researchers.

Michael Mills of the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, and colleagues used computer models to study how 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs would affect the atmosphere.

They say that their scenario – in which each country launches 50 devices of 15 kilotons – is realistic, given the countries' nuclear arsenals.

"The figure of 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs compares pretty accurately to the approximately 110 warheads that both states reportedly possess between them," agrees Wyn Bowen, professor of non-proliferation and international security in the War Studies Group at King's College, UK.

Plumes of soot

Mills and colleagues found that a regional nuclear war in South Asia would deplete up to 40% of the ozone layer in the mid latitudes and up to 70% in the high northern latitudes.

"The models show this magnitude of ozone loss would persist for five years, and we would see substantial losses continuing for at least another five years," says Mills.

The effect is far greater than was calculated in the 1980s in a study that modelled the effect of global nuclear war. Mills says old models did not take into account the impact of columns of soot that would rise up to 80 kilometres into the atmosphere.

Up to 5 million metric tons of soot would be spewed out by fires on the ground, says the team. Once in the upper stratosphere, it would absorb energy from the sun, heating the surrounding gases and catalysing the breakdown

(Excerpt) Read more at environment.newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: climatechange; decimate; environment; nuclear; ozone; proliferation; war
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To: blam
Well, this would be one way to rid the earth of the terrible species Homo sapiens. You would think the left would be cheering at a chance to rid the world of humans and let it get back to being a haven for other species. Ozone layer would replenish itself in time and we would be gone. / SAR
41 posted on 04/07/2008 3:22:24 PM PDT by calex59
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To: blam

42 posted on 04/07/2008 3:25:02 PM PDT by OB1kNOb (The Presidential election is a race to the bottom. Which Party will out stupid the other to lose ?)
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To: blam
Anyone here live through the 50s? I did. Nuclear tests were common in Nev right across the line from where I live. You could actually hear them, sometimes see the light. They went on all the time. Then there were all the tests in the Pacific.

The Japanese survived quite well, the radiation is long gone despite the BS that radiation will last 1000s of years. It didn't. Its gone.

How can people believe all the BS thrown out when the evidence is there to contradict it? The answer is simple: The average person is brainwashed from birth with left wing propaganda in order to bring this country to its knees and to siphon our money into their pockets.

43 posted on 04/07/2008 3:29:29 PM PDT by calex59
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To: mnehrling
Didn’t the Russians test at least one 200+ megaton bomb?

The Tsar Bomb was designed for a yeild of 100MT. They reduced it before the test to 50MT.

"The initial three stage design was capable of approximately 100 Mt (Megatons), but at a cost of too much radioactive fallout.

To limit fallout, the third stage, and possibly the second stage, had a lead tamper instead of a uranium-238 fusion tamper (which greatly amplifies the reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction).

This eliminated fast fission by the fusion-stage neutrons, so that approximately 97% of the total energy resulted from fusion alone (as such, it was one of the "cleanest" nuclear bombs ever created, generating a very low amount of fallout relative to its yield).

There was a strong incentive for this modification since most of the fallout from a test of the bomb would fall on populated Soviet territory."

44 posted on 04/07/2008 3:31:44 PM PDT by Gorzaloon
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To: WorkerbeeCitizen

I went to regional science fair in the mid-1990s. There was one guy with a global warming exhibit and another on nuclear winter. My father approached them and said they needed to get together to model the just right amount of nuclear winter to offset global warming.


45 posted on 04/07/2008 3:32:22 PM PDT by tbw2 ("Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" by Tamara Wilhite - on amazon.com)
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To: ArrogantBustard

Of course, a ‘nuclear winter’ would also quiet any talk of ‘global warming’.


46 posted on 04/07/2008 3:32:45 PM PDT by DugwayDuke (A true patriot will do anything to keep a Democrat out of the White House.)
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To: blam

Buncha crapol!!!

It’s a self healing process on a 3 to 5 week cycle!

Ozone is created by radiation coming through the atmosphere and stiking water.
When there is less ozone, more radiation comes through the atmosphere AND CREATES MORE OZONE!!!


47 posted on 04/07/2008 3:33:11 PM PDT by G Larry (HILLARY CARE = DYING IN LINE!)
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To: blam
Did Herman Kahn add this calamity to his calculations in “On Thermal Nuclear War?”
48 posted on 04/07/2008 3:35:32 PM PDT by Sawdring
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To: Tijeras_Slim

What I want to know is what was in those old wooden school desks that would protect you from the impulse and heat of a nuclear weapon.


49 posted on 04/07/2008 3:38:41 PM PDT by CougarGA7 (Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.)
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To: calex59
The Japanese survived quite well, the radiation is long gone despite the BS that radiation will last 1000s of years. It didn't. Its gone.

I have some Trinitite from the first Alamogordo test here. There is still detectable radioactivity, but only twice Background grossly measured, and only Beta. No Gamma to speak of with the beta shield closed.

50 posted on 04/07/2008 3:41:07 PM PDT by Gorzaloon
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To: blam
How many nukes does Pakistan and India have? And would all of them be utilized in such a war?

I would strongly suggest they have far fewer than the thousands that the US and Soviet Union detonated in tests, including in the upper atmosphere.

I suggest that a nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have no measurable effect on the OZone.

51 posted on 04/07/2008 3:41:17 PM PDT by Phantom Lord (Fall on to your knees for the Phantom Lord)
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To: Izzy Dunne

“and notice that there are NO MORE Indian elephants there nowadays”

Just overdone steaks, roasts, and elephant burger!


52 posted on 04/07/2008 3:43:45 PM PDT by dalereed (both)
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To: blam

Who cares about the ozone layer. Even a limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan would kill millions of people.

On the bright side, phone tech support would improve.


53 posted on 04/07/2008 3:52:48 PM PDT by MediaMole
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To: MediaMole; patton; neverdem; theDentist; CholeraJoe
I don't believe their “110” nuclear weapons.

Perhaps 3-6. Each.

The two countries really only need two. Each.

If each has one, the two are in a propaganda war = Unstable.

If each has two, then the region is stable. Neither can attack the other first and be absolutely positively sure it will not be attacked in return.

But nothing - ever! - has suggested either country has made more than 5 weapons. Except this story.

54 posted on 04/07/2008 4:29:04 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: blam

Don’t know about this. A thousand nukes have been tested, the bigger of which would be bigger than all these together.


55 posted on 04/07/2008 4:31:06 PM PDT by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: blam

A nuclear winter would all but destroy Al Gores means of supporting himself.


56 posted on 04/07/2008 4:32:09 PM PDT by ronnie raygun (I'd rather be hunting with dick than driving with Ted)
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To: mnehrling

The big Russian test was over 50 megatons. The atmospheric shockwave from that test was recorded in NYC. Also the shockwave after going around the planet again. Also the shockwave after going around the planet yet again. And once more.


57 posted on 04/07/2008 4:34:31 PM PDT by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: Gorzaloon

Oh I agree its hooey, I was just being sarcastic about the piece.

We have already detonated more devices with no ill affect on the climate than what the piece claims it would take to bring on a nuke winter.


58 posted on 04/07/2008 5:17:39 PM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (We're at the FReepicenter - Down with big brother.)
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To: tbw2

“My father approached them and said they needed to get together to model the just right amount of nuclear winter to offset global warming.”

I would have enjoyed the resulting discussion ;)


59 posted on 04/07/2008 5:20:13 PM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (We're at the FReepicenter - Down with big brother.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
"Read more at environment.newscientist.com"

The only thing I needed to know.

60 posted on 04/07/2008 5:37:59 PM PDT by Justa (Politically Correct is morally wrong.)
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