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Chicago: Over a billion people aross the world would face
starvation if India and Pakistan unleash nuclear weapons — even
if that war is regionally limited.
That’s because the deadly and polluting weapons would cause
major worldwide climate disruption that would dramatically drive
down food production in China, US and other countries. “The grim
prospect of nuclear famine requires a fundamental change in our
thinking about nuclear weapons,” said study author Dr Ira
Helfand of the International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War.
“The new evidence that even the relatively small nuclear
arsenals of countries such as India and Pakistan could cause
long lasting, global damage to the Earth’s ecosystems and
threaten hundreds of millions of already malnourished people
demands that action be taken,” Helfand said. “The needless
deaths over a decade would be a disaster unprecedented in human
history. It would not only cause the extinction of the human
race, but it would bring an end to modern civilization as we
know it.”
The study, set to be published in journal Climate Change,
was released at the World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Chicago.
It found that corn production in US would decline by an average
of 10% for a decade and soybean production would drop by about
10%, with the most severe decline occurring five years after the
nuclear war. It also determined that rice production in China
would drop by an average of 21% for first four years and 10% for
next six years. |
