If anyone would like to be funded to do actual high quality research on this topic, I strongly encourage application to FLI’s Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear War grant program. For decades there have been barely any careful studies because there is barely any research funding or support. It’s quite possible the effects are not as bad as currently predicted, but it’s quite possible they are worse — the modern nuclear winter studies fund that things are worse than the early ones in the 80s (though fortunately the arsenals are much smaller now.)
It seems quite important to me to have a clear-eyed view of what the results of “small” and “large” nuclear wars are like. An all-out nuclear war between the US and Russia currently would probably involve of order 1900 warheads on each side, which is still a stupendous number. (See the BAAS’s nuclear notebook for some pretty detailed arsenal numbers.) If something starts, I’m deeply pessimistic about a maintaining a “limited” nuclear war between these two, much as I’d like to believe otherwise.
If anyone would like to be funded to do actual high quality research on this topic, I strongly encourage application to FLI’s Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear War grant program. For decades there have been barely any careful studies because there is barely any research funding or support. It’s quite possible the effects are not as bad as currently predicted, but it’s quite possible they are worse — the modern nuclear winter studies fund that things are worse than the early ones in the 80s (though fortunately the arsenals are much smaller now.)
It seems quite important to me to have a clear-eyed view of what the results of “small” and “large” nuclear wars are like. An all-out nuclear war between the US and Russia currently would probably involve of order 1900 warheads on each side, which is still a stupendous number. (See the BAAS’s nuclear notebook for some pretty detailed arsenal numbers.) If something starts, I’m deeply pessimistic about a maintaining a “limited” nuclear war between these two, much as I’d like to believe otherwise.