With global warming all the rage, we don’t hear much about that other bugaboo of the 70’s - nuclear winter. The engine of global warming is the dumping of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere - these gases absorb more heat from the sun and raise the general temperature of the planet. Nuclear winter works the other way - exploding nuclear devices throw carbon soot into the atmosphere which shields us from the sun’s warmth and lowers temperatures around the globe.

With Russia’s Vladimir Putin accusing the US of trying to restart the cold war and the US’ proposed missile defense shield for Europe all over the news recently, perhaps we’re not as far away from nuclear winter as we might have thought.

In the 60’s and 70’s the only countries capable of a nuclear exchange that could bring on nuclear winter were the US and the USSR… recent rhetoric aside, fortunately that scenario has seemed unlikely for many years now, but it’s no longer the only possibility.

New Scientist reports on a recent study done using data from the much-reported International Panel on Climate Change climate report to forecast that the detonation of about 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons would lower global temperatures by 1.4 degrees Celsius - and that 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons is about equivalent to an all-out nuclear exchange between Pakistan and India.

Via: ‘Nuclear winter’ is still a threat to be avoided - earth - 11 June 2007 - New Scientist Environment
[tags]nuclear winter, carbon, nuclear war, nuclear bomb, soot, india, pakistan, cold war[/tags]

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