In all, they looked at six different scenarios ranging in size and scope of conflict. Next, they gamed out a number of battle scenarios ranging from a localized nuclear conflict to a worldwide nuclear exchange.įinally, after gathering those figures, they used the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Community Earth System Model to determine how the tons of debris added to the atmosphere by these nuclear weapons exchanges would affect the world’s surface temperature, the amount of sunlight available for photosynthesis, and the effects on precipitation level. To make this determination, the research team started by analyzing the most recently available data on crop yields, marine fisheries, and other food supplies. FAMINE COULD KILL 20 TIMES AS MANY AS NUCLEAR WAR According to their analysis, those deaths will likely be in the billions, with the residents of Australia and New Zealand seeing the lowest, yet still measurable, effects. Now, a team of researchers has modeled several nuclear war scenarios, ranging from local exchanges to a global conflict, to determine the long-ranging effects a nuclear winter may have on worldwide food supplies. Many simulations look at the potentially hundreds of millions that would likely die in the initial blasts, while others have tried to model the slower but equally as deadly body count from radiation sickness. Since the first atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, effectively spelling the end of World War II, war game theorists have looked at a myriad of simulations to determine the potential effects of a full-blown nuclear battle. NUCLEAR WAR SIMULATIONS PERFORMED FOR DECADES
The recently published set of calculations don’t focus on blast-related deaths or even deaths caused by radiation fall-out, which most estimates say would number in the hundreds of millions, but instead look at how a nuclear winter caused by nuclear bomb explosions would affect food supplies, potentially leading to the starvation of billions.
New research indicates that Australia and New Zealand are the two best places on Earth to survive a nuclear war.