How does nuclear weapons affect the environment




















He said that the results should act as a warning to the international community. I think the world should be much more concerned about proliferation than we are. Prof Turco said that the end of the cold war had taken people's minds focus off the potential dangers of nuclear war.

But in fact that's really a minor event to what's possible," he said. Climate threat from nuclear bombs. Alok Jha in San Francisco. Human costs It was Prof Turco who coined the phrase "nuclear winter" in the s to describe the potential apocalyptic global consequence of all-out nuclear war. But the climate change from even the small nuclear war we postulated would be instantaneous and such a shock to the system" He said that the results should act as a warning to the international community.

Though these have proven difficult topics to study, the articles in this section give detailed accounts of how nuclear weapons have affected, are affecting, and could affect our environment.

You can find more information on the subject in the section "Effects of Nuclear Testing on Health and Environment ". More on the Web. This makes the ozone layer grow thinner. When the ozone layer attenuates, more harmful UV-rays from the sun reach earth, harming both human beings and vegetation. Increased UV-radiation can result in skin cancer, eye problems and other health problems for humans.

It also affects the ecosystem in waters, harming fish, shellfish, amphibians and plankton. A nuclear war would also mean that large parts of water systems in the affected areas would be destroyed. All open water sources would be contaminated by radioactive fallout, making it potentially lethal to drink. After the Chernobyl disaster it became clear that not only water sources and ground water in the immediate surroundings of the disaster zone were affected.

Radioactive Cesium from the Chernobyl fallout could still be identified in the oceans in Northern Europe ten years after the accident. Radioactive particles in the water risk contaminating fish and shellfish in these areas. Those surviving a nuclear attack must be aware of the fact that radioactive particles cannot be boiled or purified by chemical methods. The safest action would be to find drinking water from preferrably covered wells as far away from the epicenter as possible.

Kearny, claims that more people would be killed by water borne diseases than by water contaminated by radioactive fallout. A nuclear war will also make it harder for people to take care of their hygiene. The water will be polluted, people will live in close quarters and it will be hard to find effective waste management systems. Insects and micro organisms with strong resistance to radioactivity will increase in numbers. Bad hygiene and many insects will lead to a rise in contagious disease — many of which are water borne.

The production of nuclear weapons has not only created an immediate threat to humanity in the shape of the risk of nuclear war, but also contributed to a protracted threat to human beings and the environment in the shape of nuclear waste products.

Between and , the cooling water from nuclear reactors was routinely released into the Columbia River in the US. Also the Savannah River is contaminated by radioactive waste. In Russia, the situation is even more distressing. Nuclear submarines, some still armed with nuclear warheads, are rusting away in the fjords of Murmansk.

Certain cancers such as thyroid cancer in children are particularly associated with exposure to radiation. The children of those exposed to radiation are statistically more likely to be born with abnormalities and suffer from leukaemia.

Because of the long period between exposure and the onset of cancer, it is difficult to attribute a particular cancer to a particular cause. The correlation is described as epidemiological, rather as the connection between smoking and lung cancer was statistically established before the medical links had been uncovered.

Accurate estimates of long term fatalities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not possible given the large scale destruction of records, population movements and a general censorship on nuclear effects by the US occupation regime.

However the generally used estimates of casualties are , in Hiroshima and 75, in Nagasaki. Nuclear weapons cause severe damage to the climate and environment on a scale incomparable to any other weapon. The five million tonnes of soot produced by the ensuing fires would cause global temperature to fall by an average of 1. The disrupted global climate would have an overwhelming impact on food production. The Red Cross estimates that a billion people around the world could face starvation as a result of nuclear war.

Join CND to campaign against nuclear weapons The city of Hiroshima devastated by a nuclear bomb The effects can be divided into four categories: instantaneous, near-immediate, short term and long term.

Instantaneous The heart of a nuclear explosion reaches a temperature of several million degrees centigrade. Near-immediate People inside buildings or otherwise shielded will be indirectly killed by the blast and heat effects as buildings collapse and all inflammable materials burst into flames. The effects of a nuclear weapon on a house: before and after the impact.



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