Nuclear darkness

Nuclear darkness refers to a predicted darkening of the Earth caused by the massive absorption of sunlight by a global stratospheric smoke layer created by the burning of cities and industrial areas following a nuclear conflict.^[1] Nuclear darkness resulting from a large nuclear exchange can produce a Nuclear winter effect, but nuclear darkness from much smaller nuclear conflicts, that do not produce the temperatures or conditions associated with nuclear winter, will still have catastrophic effects on global climate.^[2]

Research

New research indicates that much less than one percent of the current explosive power of the global nuclear arsenal, if detonated in cities of the sub-tropics, would put up to 5 million tonnes of smoke into the stratosphere, where it would reside for many years.^[3] Smoke from a regional nuclear conflict would block enough sunlight to drop average surface temperatures on Earth to pre-industrial levels, significantly shorten growing seasons, and cause catastrophic disruptions of the global climate, as well as massive destruction of the ozone layer.^[4]

References

1. ^ Starr S (2008). "High-Alert Nuclear Arsenals: the Forgotten Danger". SGR Newsletter 36: 17. http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2008/10/10_starr_high_alert.pdf. 
2. ^ Robock A, Oman L, Stenchikov GL (2007). "Nuclear winter revisited with a modern climate model and current nuclear arsenals: Still catastrophic consequences". J Geophys Res. 112: D13107. doi:10.1029/2006JD008235. 
3. ^ Robock A, Oman L, Stenchikov GL, Toon OB, Bardeen C, Turco RP (2007). "Climatic consequences of regional nuclear conflicts". Atmos Chem Phys. 7 (8): 2003–12. doi:10.5194/acp-7-2003-2007. http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/2003/2007/acp-7-2003-2007.pdf. 
4. ^ Mills MJ, Toon OB, Turco RP, Kinnison DE, Garcia RR (Apr 2008). "Massive global ozone loss predicted following regional nuclear conflict". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 105 (14): 5307–12. doi:10.1073/pnas.0710058105. PMC 2291128. PMID 18391218. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2291128.