Nuclear Famine: climate effects of regional nuclear war

Nuclear Famine

A nuclear war involving even a small fraction of the world's 25,000 nuclear warheads would kill tens of millions of people and leave entire regions uninhabitable for decades. Climate scientists have now learned that even a relatively small nuclear war would have devastating effects on the global climate. Nuclear-war-induced climate change would disrupt agricultural production around the world, and the resulting "nuclear famine" could kill as many as a billion people who already live on the edge of starvation.

Physician experts have joined climate scientists in presenting these findings to members of Congress in the US; to parliamentarians in Britain and Germany; to nuclear experts at NATO; to the President and Prime Minister of India; and to diplomats at meetings of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the UN General Assembly. Our goal is to persuade the international community that the only meaningful solution to a danger so great is the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

Follow the links in the highlighted research box (above) for more detailed information, including fact sheets, scientific papers, and a Powerpoint presentation that can be used by doctors, medical students, and grassroots activists to disseminate these findings and explain their importance.

For more information about the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), contact John Loretz, Program Director, IPPNW, 66-70 Union Square, #204, Somerville, MA 02143; 617.440.1733, ext. 280.