Arms Control Scholars Urge Nuclear Abolition as Russia Threats Raise Risk of 6.4 Billion Deaths
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Aug 16
Arms Control Scholars Urge Nuclear Abolition as Russia Threats Raise Risk of 6.4 Billion Deaths
1 articles · Updated · Forbes · Aug 16
Summary
U.S. arms control scholars said abolishing nuclear weapons has become urgent as Russian nuclear threats tied to Ukraine sharpen fears of a superpower escalation.
Princeton and other scientific simulations show why: a Russia-U.S. exchange could kill or injure more than 90 million people within hours, then trigger famine and climate collapse on a far larger scale.
A separate study modeled a war involving about 4,400 100-kiloton warheads and estimated up to 80% of humanity—about 6.4 billion people—could die, largely from nuclear-winter-driven food shortages.
Researchers said roughly 150 million tons of soot could reach the stratosphere, darkening skies for years, wrecking crops and fisheries, and leaving even relative refuges such as Australia and New Zealand facing refugee pressure.
The scholars argued only universal adoption of the U.N. nuclear ban treaty and rapid, verifiable disarmament can remove a risk they say remains nonzero under U.S. and Russian hair-trigger postures.