If nuclear weapons are used…

DR MICHAEL ATCHIA

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Past Programme Director at the United Nations,

Past President Mauritius Academy of Science and Technology

“There will be dire consequences if nuclear weapons are used, not just for the countries involved, but for the entire Planet Earth”

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as an existential battle between Russia and the   West, which he says ‘wants to destroy Russia and grab control its vast natural resources’.

Putin warned the West he was not bluffing when he said he’d be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

By claiming 18% of Ukraine as part of Russia, the room for nuclear threats increases as Putin could cast any attack on these territories as an attack on Russia itself.

What countries would survive nuclear war?

New research indicates that Australia and New Zealand, Terra del Fuego, the Cape region, Mauritius and Reunion are, amongst others, the best places on Earth to survive a nuclear war fought in Russia, in Europe and North America.

Where would be the safest place during a nuclear war? The safest place during a radiation emergency is a centrally located room or basement in your home, fully stocked with water and canned foods. This area should have as few windows as possible. The further your shelter is from windows, the safer you will be.

What would a full scale nuclear war be like?

Besides the immediate destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, a nuclear winter, widespread radiation sickness from fallout, and/or the temporary (if not permanent) loss of much modern technology (such as air-travel, internet, global trade etc) due to electromagnetic pulses.

Beta particles travel appreciable distances in air, but can be reduced or stopped by a layer of clothing, thin sheet of plastic or a thin sheet of aluminum foil. Several feet of concrete or a thin sheet of a few inches of lead may be required to stop the more energetic gamma rays.

The war could reduce global agricultural production by 90% and many, many people and animals would starve.

More than 5 billion people — roughly 60% of the world’s current population — would die of famine in the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear war between the United States, Russia and their allies.

According to the researchers, the conflict would create widespread fires that could eject up to 150 million metric tons of soot into Earth’s atmosphere, leading to crop declines by as much as 90%.

Of the world’s approximately 12,705 nuclear warheads, Russia has 5,977, and the United States has 5,428, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s latest report. The country with the third most nuclear warheads is China, with 350. India and Pakistan have 160 and 165, respectively.

Temperate regions worldwide would endure freezing temperatures and severe precipitation reductions. And conditions would likely take up to 15 years to fully recover. Permafrost would cover the landscapes of most of North America, Europe and Asia.

A nuclear war could be triggered through an accident or one wrong manoevre or by one mad man amongst those holding nuclear missiles.

It was the middle of the night on 25 October 1962 and a truck was racing down a runway in Wisconsin. It had just moments to stop a flight. Mere minutes earlier, a guard at Duluth Sector Direction Center had glimpsed a shadowy form attempting to climb the facility’s perimeter fence. He shot at it and raised the alert, fearing that this was part of a wider Soviet attack. Instantly, intruder alarms were ringing at every air base in the area. The situation escalated remarkably quickly. At nearby Volk Field, an air base, someone flicked the wrong switch – so rather than the standard security warning, pilots heard an emergency siren telling them to scramble. Soon there was a frenzy of activity, as they rushed to take to the skies, armed with nuclear weapons.

It was the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis and everyone was on edge. Eleven days earlier, a spy plane had captured photographs of secret launchers, missiles and trucks in Cuba, which suggested the Soviets were mobilising to strike targets across the United States. As the world knew only too well, all it would take was one single strike from either nation to trigger an unpredictable escalation. As it happens, on this occasion there was no imposter – at least, not a human one. The figure skulking around the fence is thought to have been a large black bear. It was all a mistake.

But back at Volk Field, the squadron was still unaware of this fact. They had been told there would be no practice runs, and as they boarded their planes, they were entirely convinced that this was it –World War Three had begun. It’s easy to forget that there are roughly 14,000 nuclear weapons out in the world, with the combined power to extinguish the lives of around three billion people – or even the extinction of the species if they triggered a nuclear winter. We know that the prospect of any leader intentionally detonating one is extremely remote; after all, they would have to be mad.

What we haven’t considered  that it could happen by accident! Or triggered by a black bear! Flocks of birds are known to have caused false alarms

All told, there have been at least 22 alarmingly narrow misses since nuclear weapons were discovered. So far, we’ve been pushed to the brink of nuclear war by such innocuous events as a group of flying swans, the Moon, minor computer problems and unusual space weather. In 1958, a plane accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb in a family’s back garden; miraculously, it did not explode and no one was killed. Mishaps have occurred as recently as 2010, when the United States Air Force temporarily lost the ability to communicate with 50 nuclear missiles, meaning there would have been no way to detect and stop an automatic launch.

On 25 January 1995, the then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin became the first world leader in history to activate a “nuclear briefcase” – a satchel which contains the instructions and technology for detonating nuclear bombs. And now in October 2022, President Vladimir Putin says “this decade as the most dangerous for the world” and talks regularly of ‘his’ nuclear capacity.

All countries and all head of states MUST come out strongly to make sure nuclear weapons are never used. Indeed  everyone MUST do so, the future of life on Earth is at stake!

Source : Internet

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