Nuclear War Between U.S. and Russia Would Cause 5 Billion People to Die – Of Hunger
September 14th, 2022Via: Study Finds:
A nuclear war between the United States and Russia would cause a global famine, wiping out almost two-thirds of the world’s population, according to new research.
A team at Rutgers University say more than five billion people would die of hunger following a full-scale nuclear conflict. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has brought the threat back into reality for the first time in decades. The team’s study is based on computer simulations of such a conflict.
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Models showed firestorms would release soot into the upper atmosphere that would block out the Sun, resulting in global crop failure. Nine nations currently control more than 13,000 nuclear weapons. Even a clash between new nuclear states would decimate food production and result in widespread starvation.
The U.S. team calculated soot dispersal from five smaller India-Pakistan wars and a large U.S.-Russia nuclear conflict, based on the size of each country’s arsenal. A climate forecasting tool called the Community Earth System Model enabled the team to estimate the effect on maize, rice, spring wheat, and soybean production country-by-country.
The researchers also examined projected changes to livestock pastures and marine fisheries. Results show that in a localized war between India and Pakistan, global average caloric production decreased seven percent within five years.
In the worst-case scenario involving the U.S. and Russia, this would rise to 90 percent three to four years after the fighting ended. Crop declines would be the most severe in the mid-to-high latitude nations, including major exporters such as Russia and America.
It could trigger supply restrictions and cause severe disruptions in import-dependent countries in Africa and the Middle East. These would induce a catastrophic disruption of global food markets. Even a seven percent decline would exceed the largest drops since records began in 1961.
