That's the question though. Are we talking about a very small local region like India vs Pakistan or Israel using it once or North Korea striking Soul with a nuclear warhead? Or do we talk about a full scale global war like as it could have been the case between the Soviet Union and the USA. While we do have a lot less nuclear weapons today compared to the height of the cold war, I think at some point more than 60 000 nuclear weapons! Using the 8 000 weapons we still have today would be most probably a very devastating event on humanity.
It is very difficult to say what might happen though. For example if all the nuclear weapons would be used more or less at the same time it would cause a rise in temperature, just a small one but enough to have an effect on the planet, a lot of carbon dioxide, dust and other stuff would be released in to the atmosphere of the planet from fires. Those would be short time effects but still quite harmful. Particularly when you consider that dust storms from Mongolia can reach the Californian coast or something like that. No clue, it is something that I have read. Anyway, pollution in China has been already detected in the US. So there is a lot of connection here. You most probably could forget any industry after a nuclear war, most important the food industry. Crops and production would most probably stop for years.
And we have not even talked about the radiation yet or the effect of the electromagnetic fields/waves which would hit a lot of machines. There is the short term and long term radiation. Radioactive Nuclei like Cesium have only a very short half life, compared to plutonium that can last for millions of years, but they can be in plants, animals and the ground for decades making it very difficult if not outright impossible to grow and find save food. As far as the wind and atmosphere goes it is pretty much unpredictable at this point anyway where and how much radiation would be, what areas it affects and what not. Chernobyl has shown that even areas thousands of miles away can be affected, like Germany, France and Britain. And the long term effects of the radiation would not be very pretty either. Particularly if you don't have the technology to fight it. People that have grown up in Hiroshima and Nagasaki STILL suffer from it.
Of course there are ways eventually to deal with all of those things, I am sure, but it would be devastating for decades with extremely high casualties, most probably in the billions. There is a good chance that a nuclear war would be eventually the end of humanity because you have a lot of issues coming at us all at once, but it is just speculation.
Anyway, one thing is absolutely clear. Civilization as we know it would end immediately with a nuclear war. Of course I don't know it, that is my opinion but I personaly believe a nuclear war could have brought humanity close to extinction.
The issue I see here is that you would have a very hard time to keep up a running government after a full global nuclear war. Why? Well, for one reason. No infrastructure. A nuclear war, most of the time, was always seen as the ultimo ratio, the last option. For a reason. Because it means the absolute point of no return. Once you get in such a situation where the government has to run the country from a bunker there is no reason for the common man to follow orders or feeling bound by his oath, and that is a rather natural occurrence. Order in a nation like the US or Europe is held up mainly by the bureaucracy and authority, like the police, military etc. Once they disappear, everyone is on his own. Police officers, military personal, officials, doctors, nurses and in general all the people that keep this society running would be on their way home trying to find and eventually protect their families and property instead of keeping up the order. Government institutions, hospitals and military bases would be completely deserted at some point and most of the communication would probably stop working. Again, we are talking here about a global nuclear war. Society as we know it would brake down. And I don't think many people would feel obliged to follow some group of people hiding inside a bunker that has eventually enough resources to run for 6 or 9 months. After that they pretty much have to leave the place as well.
I still don't get it why many senators, ministers, presidents back then even thought they could run the country from a remote location and distant bunker, just because they survived. In fact they could as well decide to never build any bunker at all and I don't think it would make any difference in the long run. Do they not believe that normal human beings would simply decide to go home? At this point, you have been one of the UNFORTUNATE souls who survived, you could as well get back to your family and eventually die there. People would most probably leave their positions.
It is very difficult to say what might happen though. For example if all the nuclear weapons would be used more or less at the same time it would cause a rise in temperature, just a small one but enough to have an effect on the planet, a lot of carbon dioxide, dust and other stuff would be released in to the atmosphere of the planet from fires. Those would be short time effects but still quite harmful. Particularly when you consider that dust storms from Mongolia can reach the Californian coast or something like that. No clue, it is something that I have read. Anyway, pollution in China has been already detected in the US. So there is a lot of connection here. You most probably could forget any industry after a nuclear war, most important the food industry. Crops and production would most probably stop for years.
And we have not even talked about the radiation yet or the effect of the electromagnetic fields/waves which would hit a lot of machines. There is the short term and long term radiation. Radioactive Nuclei like Cesium have only a very short half life, compared to plutonium that can last for millions of years, but they can be in plants, animals and the ground for decades making it very difficult if not outright impossible to grow and find save food. As far as the wind and atmosphere goes it is pretty much unpredictable at this point anyway where and how much radiation would be, what areas it affects and what not. Chernobyl has shown that even areas thousands of miles away can be affected, like Germany, France and Britain. And the long term effects of the radiation would not be very pretty either. Particularly if you don't have the technology to fight it. People that have grown up in Hiroshima and Nagasaki STILL suffer from it.
Of course there are ways eventually to deal with all of those things, I am sure, but it would be devastating for decades with extremely high casualties, most probably in the billions. There is a good chance that a nuclear war would be eventually the end of humanity because you have a lot of issues coming at us all at once, but it is just speculation.
Anyway, one thing is absolutely clear. Civilization as we know it would end immediately with a nuclear war. Of course I don't know it, that is my opinion but I personaly believe a nuclear war could have brought humanity close to extinction.
The issue I see here is that you would have a very hard time to keep up a running government after a full global nuclear war. Why? Well, for one reason. No infrastructure. A nuclear war, most of the time, was always seen as the ultimo ratio, the last option. For a reason. Because it means the absolute point of no return. Once you get in such a situation where the government has to run the country from a bunker there is no reason for the common man to follow orders or feeling bound by his oath, and that is a rather natural occurrence. Order in a nation like the US or Europe is held up mainly by the bureaucracy and authority, like the police, military etc. Once they disappear, everyone is on his own. Police officers, military personal, officials, doctors, nurses and in general all the people that keep this society running would be on their way home trying to find and eventually protect their families and property instead of keeping up the order. Government institutions, hospitals and military bases would be completely deserted at some point and most of the communication would probably stop working. Again, we are talking here about a global nuclear war. Society as we know it would brake down. And I don't think many people would feel obliged to follow some group of people hiding inside a bunker that has eventually enough resources to run for 6 or 9 months. After that they pretty much have to leave the place as well.
I still don't get it why many senators, ministers, presidents back then even thought they could run the country from a remote location and distant bunker, just because they survived. In fact they could as well decide to never build any bunker at all and I don't think it would make any difference in the long run. Do they not believe that normal human beings would simply decide to go home? At this point, you have been one of the UNFORTUNATE souls who survived, you could as well get back to your family and eventually die there. People would most probably leave their positions.
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