Nuclear War : " The Day After " ?

[Paro]

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.

[Strider]

Sunday is no day to be talking about death, doom and destruction, young man.

[theundeadhero]

I guess if you believe in true evolution all your hope is lying in the microorganisms.

[Madame Adequate]

Except for the fact that nukes don't throw up NEARLY as much dirt into the air as popular culture presumes, and the severe radiation effects fade within a couple of months, yes.

Oh wait, I guess that means no, then.

Nukes are incredibly powerful weapons, but they are far more immediate than presumed. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are inhabited, quite safely. We've detonated over 2,000 nuclear bombs and seen no known ill effects on anything larger than the actual area they were detonated in.

By the time we reach a stage where the effects described occur, it would be irrelevant because the planet would be physically damaged - ie continents would crack open - to the point where mere weather is not a concern.

The actual probable consequences of a nuclear exchange would be massive immediate loss of life, probably doubling over the next few weeks and months as survivors succumb to radiation poisoning, unless there are powerful uninvolved forces willing to intervene with medical assistance in which case we might at least see a little mercy in the deaths, if nothing else. Plague and disease would be rampant in the ruined areas (Much more notably reduced by humanitarian aid), but fallout would fade to tolerable levels within a few months (Depending on local geography) and the area would be recoverable for farming and habitation in fairly short order. The infrastructure would require near-total rebuilding, however, an effort which would take years even in the event of a single city being nuked. An entire region could decades to rebuild.

We've seen how amazingly powerful nukes are, though. There might be radical factions here and there who would deploy one, but the vast majority of those who possess nuclear weapons have no desire to actually deploy them. With the end of the Cold War, a nuclear exchange on a large scale isn't terribly likely at this time. However there is a relatively high probability of nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan.

[Giga Guess]

Aren't we all just precious?

[Captain Maxx Power]

If the Fallout series has taught us nothing else, it's that a Post-Apocalyptic world would be filled with fun, hi-jinxs, Ghouls, Super-Mutants, Bridge Keepers of Death, Deathclaws, Power Armour, mutant Gecko's, Plasma Rifles and trees named Bob.

[bipper]

I guess if you believe in true evolution all your hope is lying in the microorganisms.

And roaches.

[Quindiana Jones]

Bloody roaches. It really takes the piss that even if we nuke them, THEY STILL WON'T DIE!!!!