Completed
Studies of the potential climate effects of nuclear war in the 1980s focused on northern hemisphere, large-scale nuclear conflicts, and predicted more extreme global “nuclear winter” scenarios. Advances in Earth system modeling capabilities offer an opportunity to improve understanding of the integrated environmental impacts from nuclear exchange scenarios with greater accuracy. This study will review the potential environmental effects and socio-economic consequences that could unfold in the weeks-to-decades following nuclear wars, exploring scenarios ranging from small-scale regional nuclear exchanges to large-scale exchanges between major powers.
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Potential Environmental Effects of Nuclear War
Consensus Study Report
·2025
In response to the buildup of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals during the Cold War, a series of major scientific studies conducted in the 1980s issued warnings about the potential for a "nuclear winter" scenario - the possibility that a large-scale nuclear exchange could inject massive amounts of s...
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