Environmental Impact of Nuclear Warfare

Abstract

Uncertainty may exist about the future likelihood of nuclear war. On the other hand, no doubt exists that nuclear weapons must be eliminated from the arsenals of the world. Even the most modest and restrained nuclear initiative by one belligerent could well be countered in kind, this in turn perhaps leading to an escalating exchange. Even the very limited attacks by the USA during World War II had a profound impact on the enmeshed humans and their artefacts, the medical and social ramifications of which continue to haunt the survivors and their offspring. However, the present paper does not dwell on the effects of nuclear weapons on humans*, but rather upon the natural environment. It summarizes the foreseeable environmental impact in quantitative terms with respect to damage from the blast-wave, the thermal pulse, and the nuclear radiation—doing so, by way of example, for a 20-kiloton atomic bomb and a 1-megaton hydrogen bomb (and also with passing mention for a 1-kiloton neutron bomb).The effects of a nuclear war—a war in which scores to hundreds, if not thousands, of nuclear bombs might be expended—is summarized in relation to affected portions of the geosphere, the atmosphere, and the Biosphere. A nuclear attack would kill wildlife and destroy the vegetation over a large area through a combination of blast, heat, and nuclear radiation. Wildfires could well extend the zone of immediate destruction. Surface disruption and the loss of vegetation would lead to greatly accelerated wind and water erosion and ‘nutrient dumping’.It is concluded nevertheless that an area devastated by nuclear warfare would in time recover by the natural processes of ecological succession, but far more slowly and more unpredictably than following other forms of ecological disruption.