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Wall Street Journal

One Nuclear War Can Ruin the Whole Climate

The world is on the brink of a climate apocalypse—one caused not by gradual greenhouse emissions but by a sudden exchange of nuclear weapons, a possibility made more salient by the current conflict between India and Pakistan. While the long-term effects of emissions are uncertain, we know that a nuclear war would result in an immediate nuclear winter. When we think about nuclear apocalypse, we tend to think of the immediate effects: thermonuclear explosions that incinerate cities and vaporize populations. But the worst consequences unfold long after the weapons have detonated. A major thermonuclear exchange would shroud the atmosphere in soot, plunging the world into darkness and ushering in a decadelong winter. While hundreds of millions of people would likely be killed in the initial conflagrations, most of the human population—including those in the combatant nations—would likely die in the subsequent winter famine.