nuclear-news

A “regional” nuclear war would have global unmanageable effects

The Red Cross has determined that if nuclear weapons were used today, any attempts at responding or coping with the humanitarian needs of survivors would be utterly overwhelmed.  These new climate and health studies demonstrate that a limited, regional nuclear war would have global health and humanitarian consequences on a scale never seen before

A treaty banning nuclear weapons is urgent, necessary and achievable, and negotiations on such a treaty should begin. Now.

Preventing another Hiroshima, By Rebecca Johnson, ICAN 6 August 2012 “…….recent studies demonstrate that a regional nuclear war would cause global famine, jeopardising over a billion people.
The new “nuclear winter” studies update the 1980s research , examining the use of 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons on urban centres in India and Pakistan. This limited regional scenario (0.04 percent of the explosive power in today’s arsenals) recognises the fallibility of deterrence and that suspicious neighbours could reproduce the risk factors that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, including miscalculation, miscommunication, military escalation and, potentially, rogue commanders.  Growing cyberwarfare capacities in
many countries add an extra dimension of volatile danger to an explosive mix.

Millions of tons of sooty smoke would be propelled by the nuclear
explosions into the upper atmosphere. Skies would darken, temperatures
across the planet would fall by an average of 1.25 deg.C. , and
rainfall would be disrupted.  In addition to widespread radioactive
contamination, these climate effects would persist for a decade, with
devastating consequences for agriculture and the health and life
cycles of many species. In addition to the tens of millions that would
die from the direct effects of nuclear detonations on South Asia’s
major cities, over one billion people around the world would be put at
risk of death by starvation. Infectious epidemics and further conflict
would exact an additional toll.

The Red Cross has determined that if nuclear weapons were used today, any attempts at responding or coping with the humanitarian needs of survivors would be utterly overwhelmed.  These new climate and health studies demonstrate that a limited, regional nuclear war would have global health and humanitarian consequences on a scale never seen
before, regardless of whether people live in a “nuclear-weapons-free
zone”, such as cover Africa, Latin America, the Pacific and Central
and South-East Asia.

As we remember the devastation wrought by two relatively small nuclear
bombs in August 1945, we cannot afford to be complacent.
Proliferation and nuclear threats will continue as long as some
countries value and hold on to these most inhumane weapons of mass
destruction. A treaty banning nuclear weapons is urgent, necessary and
achievable, and negotiations on such a treaty should begin. Now.
http://icanw.org/node/6119

August 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general