Small Nuclear War Could Lead to Cooldown

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/dec/11/121102061.html

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Some of the scientists who first advanced the controversial "nuclear winter" theory more than two decades ago have come up with another bleak forecast: Even a regional nuclear war would devastate the environment.

Using modern climate and population models, researchers estimated that a small-scale nuclear conflict between two warring nations would cause 3 million to 17 million immediate casualties and lead to a marked cooldown of the planet that could lead to crop failures and further misery.

As dire as the predictions seem, they fall short of nuclear winter. That theory says that smoke and dust from an atomic war between the superpowers would blot out the sun, plunge the Earth into the deep freeze and cause mass starvation, wiping out 90 percent of the Earth's population, or billions of people.

The new scenario offers no estimate of the number of deaths from the environmental effects of a regional nuclear war.

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[phantom power]

1. I'd like to know why they think 10% of humanity would survive a nuclear winter.

[angry_chuck]

3. if you took over a wal-mart

you could hold out for a while. I mean a super wal-mart, of course.

[KansDem]

6. This kid did it for 41 hours...

College student lives at Wal-Mart for 41 hours

Associated Press
Mar. 29, 2006 07:25 AM

DES MOINES, Iowa - For spring break, some college students set out for sun-drenched beaches or cheap European cities. Skyler Bartels headed for the local Wal-Mart.

Bartels, 20, an aspiring writer and Drake University sophomore, thought he'd spend a week in a Wal-Mart as a test of endurance, using it as the premise for a magazine article. His college adviser liked the idea.

"I just intuitively thought, 'This is brilliant!' " said Carol Spaulding-Kruse, an associate professor of English. "I wasn't quite sure why, but it just sounded like a really good idea." advertisement

For 41 hours, Bartels wandered the aisles of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Windsor Heights that's open 24 hours a day. He checked out shoppers, read magazines, watched movies on the DVD display and played video games.
--more--

And you're right: it was a "supercenter."

[angry_chuck]

9. Hilarious - A shift manager approached him and asked...

... if he was finding everything he needed.

"He said, 'Didn't I see you over by the magazines, like, five hours ago?' I told him, 'Maybe,' "

[angstlessk]

2. When I read the title of this article, I thought they were advocating for

a small nuclear war in order to offset global warming...I do not like the title!

[jpak]

5. I post 'em like I see 'em....

and I don't like the title either way - especially after ChimpCo's recent Nukes-for-Mangoes clusterfuck deal with India and Australia's new willingness to export uranium to nuclear proliferators....

[Mist]

7. I thought that too--doesn't that sound like * "science" ? nt

[YankeyMCC]

8. That passed through my mind to

it went something like "Oh shit don't let Kommander KooKooBananas see this he'll think it a great plan."

[Botany]

4. A small nuclear war would end life on the planet too.

Even a small exchange of warheads would release enough long lived
radioactive toxins that would make their way to the world's oceans
with lethal effects on it's phytoplankton. Phytoplankton in the oceans
make about 50% of the world's O2.

No oxygen = game over.

[Porcupine]

10. Phytoplankton are tougher than that.

But we aren't.