What would cause a nuclear winter?

Question

I know nukes will ofcourse but I mean what will the nukes do? Will they sort of mess up the climate or something?

Answer 1

The idea behind Nuclear Winter was that the explosion of a massive number of Nuclear Warheads would send up so much Dust, Dirt and Debris that the Sun would be blocked. Thus lowering Temperatures World Wide. So even if you somehow survived the Initial Impacts, and the Radiation, the temperatures and lack of ability to grow food would kill off the human Race. Massive Volcanic Eruptions have lowered temperatures on a regional and a Global Level on short term level, in the region or 1-2 degrees. So the Idea is viable.

One problem with this, No one would be alive to care if global temperatures dropped and the Sun did not shine. The Weapons were targeted at anywhere that might have been remotely livable after a USSR/USA Exchange. Mutually Assured Destruction. The Name of the Game is EVERYONE DIES. South America? Targeted. Australia? Targeted. Antarctica ? Targeted. Africa? Targeted.
On top of this the amount of Radiation released would ensure that only the Cockroaches Survived.

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Answer 2

Like planet killing asteroids or large meteors, nukes would throw up enough debris and dust into the atmosphere above 20,000 to 50,000 feet that would block sunlight for at least two years....long enough to kill all plant life.

Carl Sagan estimated it would take a mere 100 megatons of nuclear yield (a mere 1 % of the world's nuclear arsenals) to initiate global impact winter

Answer 3

Nuclear winter was a theory popular in the 1980s, However, the theory was discredited when it was used to predict the results of the Kuwait oil well fires after the Gulf War and it turned out that the effects were much less than the theory predicted.

It keeps resurfacing when people ignore this fact.

Answer 4

The fallout that is projected into the upper atmosphere will block out the sun. It woult be like thousands of huge volcano's erupting all at once.

Answer 5

just a few determined al quieda terrorists who slip past the radar with their little packages from pakistan. not much, really.

Answer 6

A lot of dust being blown into the atmosphere.

Answer 7

I think it has something to do with Dust and neclear fallout, but i'm not sure.