Nuclear War : " The Day After " ?
I was watching The Day After and its a pretty scary flick on how bad a nuclear strike would be. In it survivors battle thru radiation disease , a scorched land and people who need food & water.
A full scale nuclear strike by both superpowers would be much, much worse than what you see in The Day After. The resulting nuclear winter would effectively blot out the sun worldwide for years to come, possibly decades, making standard horticulture impossible. Survivors would begin to starve to death relatively quickly, with those having ample stored provisions lasting as long as the food did. Plant life would die within days to weeks, and the animals that fed on it at roughly the same rate, with insects and decomposers lasting longest. Without sunlight to feed it, bluegreen algae in the oceans, which makes most of the planetary oxygen, would begin to die. Ocean life would survive longer, but even it depends on oxygen dissolved in the water. Those organisms living closest to the surface would die quickest. Some deep sea species might be immune to the effects.
As plants died, soil would become loosened, and massive storms, superweather systems that dwarf the worst we've ever seen would sweep constantly across land masses, destroying existing crops and taking the lives of survivors. Global temeratures would soar.
Assuming it was an equal exchange between the two super powers, the southern hemisphere would survive somewhat longer, by a few weeks perhaps, but the same thing would eventually happen.
Within a year, all larger animal and plant life would be dead, save perhaps a few isolated pockets of survivors in well stocked deep underground bunkers. We don't know precisely how long the nuclear winter would last, but assuming that it eventually ends, and that there were survivors to come back out of their bunkers, there would be no topsoil left, no plants, no landscape as we know it, probably no way to restart the ecosystem.
Short version: In short order every plant and animal on the planet, save perhaps some deep sea lifeforms, dies. The planet becomes a lifeless husk with perhaps microorganisms surviving. The Day After is a pleasant wish fulfillment fantasy compared to what would actually happen.
Discuss.
