So we talk about how we, the people of earth, have the ability to destroy ourselves in a
way most species don’t.
What we’re generally talking about when we say this is nuclear weapons, and how we,
quote, have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the earth many times over.
Well, first, no we couldn’t.
In terms of pure destructive force, the entire nuclear arsenal of every country on earth
(mostly concentrated in the US and Russia) is about 7000 megatons...the equivalent of
seven million tons of TNT.
The Chicxulub meteor impact didn’t destroy the earth, or even all life on earth, and
it was about 14,000 times more powerful than that.
14,000 times more power than ALL OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON EARTH!
We truly are puny humans.
Even the relatively mild 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was four times more powerful than
the most powerful fusion bomb ever designed.
Basically, if every nuclear weapon on earth simultaneously exploded right now, we would
have some bad stuff happen.
There would be an increase in localized radiation and a number of unfortunate deaths, but overall
we might actually live in a safer world, especially since those bombs right now are under ground
in remote areas for the most part.
The more dangerous possibility, and where the idea of the deadly, apocalyptic nuclear
winter comes from, is if those bombs are used on cities.
The bombs themselves would have a significant impact, but the more important bit is the
resulting thousands of firestorms.
Now, firestorm sounds just like a hyperbolic word for a bad fire, but it’s not.
Firestorms happen when a fire is intense enough to create it’s own weather pattern of increased
winds which further drive the burning and destruction and shoot soot and ash way up
into the atmosphere.
It’s exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
If that happened thousands of times around the earth all at once, atmospheric models
indicate that, yes, indeed, it would be very bad.
We’re talking global decreases in temperature of up to 25 degrees celsius for a few months,
and then up to six degrees celsius for a number of years.
That would be bad news for people and also the ecosystems we depend on.
Also, having the majority of city dwelling humans killed, and also all of the city-based
infrastructure destroyed would be, y’know, not good.
However...and I’m not saying I want to test this out, I do have confidence that some people
would survive.
Though, they would survive in a world without YouTube and air conditioning, so really what’s
the point.
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