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Climatic and Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear War
September 17, 2018, 7:00 PM
Free
Alan Robock, distinguished professor of climate science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University, will discuss the climatic and humanitarian impacts of a nuclear war.
A nuclear war between any two nations with each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs as airbursts on urban areas, would inject so much smoke from the resulting fires into the stratosphere that the resulting climate change would be unprecedented in recorded human history. Climate model simulations indicate that the smoke would absorb sunlight, making it dark, cold, and dry at Earth’s surface and produce global-scale ozone depletion, with enhanced ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface.
The United Nations passed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons on July 7, 2017. Will humanity now pressure the United States and the other eight nuclear nations to sign this treaty?
Sponsored by the Department of Science, Technology, and Society.
A reception with the speaker begins at 6:30 p.m.