OPINION (Daily Mail) – Were the United States and Russia to engage in full-out atomic warfare, the consequences would plunge the Earth into a 10-year nuclear winter. Fires ignited by nuclear detonations would likely inject around 147 million tons (150 billion kilograms) of soot into the atmosphere. Winds in the stratosphere would cause these soot aerosols to encircle the entire globe within weeks, plunging the Earth into an enduring nuclear winter. Blotting out the light of the sun, the soot clouds would cause average surface
temperatures to drop by almost 16.2°F (9°C). The experts predict that it would take around seven years for the curtain of soot to begin to visibly clear — and three more for light to return to normal levels. The war’s atmospheric effects would also see the monsoon collapse and a significant increase in the variability of the El Niño cycle. Atmospheric scientist Joshua Coup of Rutgers University in New Jersey and colleagues simulated how the climate would respond to all-out nuclear war using the cutting-edge, so-called Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 4. READ MORE
