Saturday, March 21, 2015

Post-nuclear war: horrific diseases and genetic deformities

The video doesn't mention that these horrible disease, now experienced by millions in the world's poorest countries, will become far more prevalent in the after math of nuclear war. Even a war with only 100 nuclear explosion could lead to mass famine worldwide. In a larger war, nuclear destruction of large cities will kill at least half of all physicians and destroy most medical facilities and suppliers in the affected nations.  Radiation will lead to an explosion of genetic mutations worldwide. Horrific deformities in newborns will become even more prevalent and horrific than those seen here. Of course, most such children, and even those with more minor deformities, will be quietly allowed to die or put to death soon after birth, as they were before medical advances.  See relevant articles on the latter here and here. Lots more online.


Here are just a few mostly mainstream articles about the rising threat of world nuclear war, most published over the last year... Remember 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the use of relatively tiny nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
* Five Ways Nuclear Armageddon Was Almost Unleashed
* Chance of nuclear war is greater than we think
* Two Billion At Risk: The Threat of Limited Nuclear War
* Remembering Hiroshima: Nuclear abolition and the will of the people
* As Hiroshima Day dawns, why are we still tempting nuclear fate?
* Life after a nuclear war revealed: Computer models reveal Earth would suffer a 20-year-long winter and worldwide famine; Their research looked at the detonation of 100 'small' nuclear warheads
* Nuclear doom lurks in U.S. faceoff with Russia over Ukraine
* Vladimir Putin says Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons 'if necessary' and blames US for Ukraine crisis
* Briefing: The world is facing a growing threat of nuclear war
* The new nuclear age A quarter of a century after the end of the cold war, the world faces a growing threat of nuclear conflict

Update: And let's not forget that in even a small nuclear exchange a lot of nuclear power plants will melt down, either because of direct damage or damage to the energy supplies keeping the nuclear reactor core cooled.  And while a hydrogen bomb may produce a massive explosion, it contains only 10 - 20 pounds of radioactive material. Nuclear power plant facilities often contain tons of active, used and stored nuclear materials. Once there is a relatively small power plant explosion affecting the surrounding facilities, the materials will burn for years, releasing their poisonous radioactivity for decades or longer. Thousands of square miles of land surrounding and downwind from the hundreds of plants will be contaminated. Wind and water will circulate radioactivity around the planet. More information on the number of plants worldwide here and here.
Just one particularly graphic scenario is below, for when power is out all over the world (in the fantasy scenario where all humans just disappear). At least National Geographic had the sense to portray what would really happen without humans maintaining sensitive and dangerous infrastructure. Geomagnet storms knocking out power over wide swaths of the planet could have a similar effect. So could worldwide economic catastrophe, energy shortages, pandemic disease killing off nuclear technicians, widely dispersed earthquakes and tsunamis, asteroid strikes, and all manner of "apocalypse".  For real life meltdowns that already happened see youtube videos on Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters.

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