A single nuclear weapon has the capacity to destroy an entire city and claim the lives of most of its inhabitants.
Multiple nuclear detonations over modern cities would result in tens of millions of deaths, and a large-scale nuclear conflict between the US and Russia could cause casualties in the hundreds of millions.
In just 10 seconds, the fireball from a nuclear explosion reaches its full size, unleashing vast amounts of energy through blast, heat, and radiation.
The shockwave, traveling at hundreds of kilometers per hour, devastates areas near ground zero, killing people instantly and causing serious injuries such as lung damage, hearing loss, and internal bleeding further away.
Buildings collapse, and debris becomes lethal. Thermal radiation vaporizes everything near the explosion, while severe burns and widespread fires engulf large areas, merging into a massive firestorm. Even those in underground shelters face the threat of suffocation and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Nuclear weapons also generate ionizing radiation, which can kill, sicken, and contaminate the environment, with long-term health effects such as cancer and genetic mutations. The atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons from 1945 to 1980 is projected to cause around 2.4 million deaths from cancer worldwide.
Even the use of less than 1% of the world’s nuclear arsenal could disrupt the global climate, potentially leading to nuclear famine and threatening up to two billion people with starvation. A full-scale nuclear exchange involving thousands of warheads could trigger a nuclear winter, devastating ecosystems and leading to catastrophic climate changes.
Healthcare systems and emergency responders would be unable to operate in heavily contaminated areas.
A single nuclear strike on a modern city would push disaster relief efforts to the brink, while a nuclear war would utterly overwhelm any relief infrastructure in place. The resulting refugee crisis would dwarf any previous humanitarian emergency.
The environmental impact of nuclear weapons is severe, with nuclear warfare leading to climate disruptions, global famine, and worsened global warming. The socio-economic effects would be equally catastrophic, particularly for developing nations and marginalized communities. Additionally, the resources spent on nuclear weapon development, maintenance, and dismantling could instead be invested in green technologies and healthcare improvements.
