Nuclear Winter Myth or No?

[Arch Enemy]

I remember someone telling me that Nuclear Winter is nothing but a myth, I would like to see the facts and evidence for such a thing to be considered a myth..

Debate away!

 

[Diogenes]

Hmm. Maybe that would be the solution to the "global warming" myth...

 

[ILikeDubyah]

http://www.aussurvivalist.com/nuclear/factsvsmyths.htm

Not sure to the credibility of this site, as it was the first one that popped up when I typed in "Nuclear Winter", butr this says that theory has been discredited, and has lots of nifty charts & graphs.

 

[Arch Enemy]

Ah, according to the article you found they say that a Nuclear Wars has been exaggerated since the creation of Nuclear Warheads. As far as Nuclear Winter goes, serious climate changes have yet to been found, but are not completely ruled out. They also believe that the temperature if 70 Degrees F in July would change to about 50 Degrees F for only a few days, thus destroying the myth that the temperature would drop to -10 Degrees F for several weeks.

They also talk about how a full-scale Nuclear War would be far from the end of the Human Race, but it'll be the worst event of all time.

So is the over exaggerated Nuclear Winter a myth? Yes. It won't be as bad as first hypothesized.

 

[epr64]

Well, it seems to be a question of scale.
There were natural catastrophes that produced (or are thought to have produced) a nuclear winter (volcano explosions, meteorites, etc..). As for the effects, the end of the dinosaurs seem to be related with nuclear winter. It's a theory, but it is widely accepted.

The theory, if I remember correctly, talks about 100 megaton over 100 cities as necessary to produce enough particles released in the atmosphere to start a nuclear winter. This means a full-scale global nuclear war, I think.

Now, I wouldn't test the theory.. :twocents:

CU
Y

 

[ThatGuy]

Well, it seems to be a question of scale.
The theory, if I remember correctly, talks about 100 megaton over 100 cities as necessary to produce enough particles released in the atmosphere to start a nuclear winter. This means a full-scale global nuclear war, I think.
CU
Y

The yield of a single ICBM is in the 70-100 megaton range, as each holds multiple warheads of 10-20 megatons each, each capable of a seperate target.

There are over 7000 such warheads in the US alone.

When people think of 'the bomb', the only reference they have is Japan. Those were BABIES, low yield, low tech, 10-15 KILOTON bombs.
The russians MADE and TESTED a single, 50 MEGATON, air deliverable high yield bomb.

The difference between a 1940's 15 kiloton bomb and a current 25 megaton bomb are like night and day. The 1940's would be considered a tactical device now, used when troops were nearby, deliverable by artillary fire (sp).

It was called 'mutually assured destruction' for a reason..

 

[Tashah]

Computer modeling seems to imply that a nuclear winter is within the realm of possibility. However the key ingrediants (parameters) for postulating a nuclear winter scenario are variable and legion. This subject broaches 'Chaos Theory' which is still in its infancy.