Nuclear Winter

Suppose a large meteor, comet, or asteroid should strike the Earth as threatened in the motion pictures Deep Impact or Armageddon. From such an impact, the debris thrown into the atmosphere would shut off the sun; lack of sunlight, or at best very little, would lower temperatures around the earth to below freezing, rather like Mars or Antarctica. Perpetual twilight would alternate with pitch-black night. Nothing would grow. Plants would die and then animals and humans along with them. Scientists believe such was how dinosaurs vanished.

Should the nuclear arsenals be unleashed, at least as much debris would be thrown into the atmosphere. But the problems would not be limited to darkness and natural loss of heat. Fires from the bomb blasts, nuclear radiation spread not only from the explosions but from the irradiated debris circling the globe, injuries from collapsed buildings, blindness from observing the blasts, radiation sickness would all compound and hasten the death of life on this planet. The ecological network would crumble. This is the prevailing scientific view.

Some scientists believe that a limited battle would allow small pockets of people to survive. They would be subject to severe meteorological conditions, radiation caused mutations, nearly impossible agricultural conditions, and the loss of all technology. They would have to withstand assaults by marauding bands, drought, poor crops, early deaths, mutations and mutants. This scenario A Canticle for Leibowitz offers.

For a Nuclear Holocaust game check out this link. Don't despair; don't laugh it off.

An FAQ on nearly everything on nuclear weapons can be found at this site.

A college course on Nuclear Holocaust in film and literature provides many sites and links that can be perused to understand this perilous idea.