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The Conversation
The Conversation
Environment
Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science, UCL

Nuclear war would be more devastating for Earth's climate than cold war predictions – even with fewer weapons

Hamara/Shutterstock

Christopher Nolan’s biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer has revived morbid curiosity in the destructive power of nuclear weapons. There are now an estimated 12,512 nuclear warheads.

A war in which even a fraction of these bombs were detonated would create blast waves and fires capable of killing millions of people almost instantly. The radiation-induced cancers and genetic damage would affect the remaining population for generations.

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