to date, there have been over 2600 nuclear bomb tests made by America, Russia, China, France and others...
The world even saw the CZAR bomb which echoed and reverberated around the world 5 times with its shockwaves. A nuclear war carried out at the moment would not destroy and poison the entire world. Yes, there will be contaminations, poisonings, radiations and all the other things following the explosions.
I hear rosy pictures of nuclear war and just roll my eyes. Let me describe what would really occur in a nuclear war.
Those tests were spread out over decades and none of those tests were targeting civilian population centers, energy grids, food production, nuclear power plants, or military bases and munitions depots, all major trade ports, all manufacturing centers, all major airports, etc. Gone or irradiated and unsafe.
Taking a lesson from history, however, 23 small yield bombs were tested at the Bikini Atoll islands over a period of ~12 years from 1946-58. The Bikini Atoll remains unsafe levels of gamma radiation and uninhabitable today, 6 decades later.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...-standards-nearly-60-years-nuclear-tests.html
Modern nuclear weapons can reach targets in 5 - 15 minutes around the globe, and many launched off sea from subs. With so little warning, it's almost pointless to warn people and cause a panic. For most people during the typical day or night, they might not receive a warning or have anywhere to hide. What would you do with 5 minutes warning? Not a whole lot.
A superpower nuclear exchange would in fact probably immediately kill hundreds of millions or realistically several billion humans, and nearly all animal and insect life in these areas, on many continents mostly in the USA, Europe, and Russia. It's easy to think 50% of superpower nations' populations would die on day 1. So, 1/2 of the US (175 million), 1/2 of Russia (80 million), 1/2 of Europe (400 million), 1/2 of China (700 million), 1/2 of India (700 million), 1/2 of Japan (80 million), 1/2 of S. Korea (25 million), etc. Day 1, easy to predict that right there is 2.1 BILLION people. Another 25% die in week 1 from injuries, dehydration, local violence, sickness, suicide, etc. That's another billion people.
Probably other nations would launch too, so any nuclear armed nation plus adversaries would be struck. China, France, Pakistan, India, N. Korea, Japan, etc. would suffer badly in addition to the major players.
For instance, nearly all honey bees would be killed. You cannot grow anything, without honey bees. So you would have no more crops, no flowers, no fruit trees, nothing. No pollen. No bees. No agriculture. Period. Almost all livestock would be dead. Either killed instantly or in the first few weeks through poisoning or killed for food. Cows in Nebraska might survive the initial attack, but they'd eat grass and drink water infected with poison fallout. Then die. No livestock - no food. And no baby livestock. No eggs. No calves. No more. Gone.
So in addition to the probably billions dead on day 1-3, another couple billion would be dead in the first 6 months. Fatality numbers in the major countries would easily reach 80% or more in my view. Directly from the attacks, or any number of struggles among the survivors - injury, illness, violence, starvation, dehydration, radiation sickness, and suicide would easily claim billions of people in the first 6 months.
Of those maybe 20% survivors, their lineage survival rates would be very low due to the malnourishment of the mother, birth defects, or mother death in child birth (and lack of having a caring parent, no breast milk, no food, just an extra mouth to feed), and/or lack of baby food. Education/skill rates of those who might survive infancy to grow, would be at Neanderthal rates with no schooling, no traditions, no community, and simply put to work to survive at the earliest ages (8 years old, doing hard labor).
The northern hemisphere would be uninhabitable for a century as well as key industrial and urban areas of huge parts of the S. Hemisphere. No global trade, tribal warring for resources, etc.
Imagine all the poisons and toxins in society released in the air, the ash, the water. Radiation clouds and dirt blocking the sun, causing poison rain to fall on the earth and into water tables, etc.
The quick death and rot of hundreds of billions of animals and plantlife would overcome any sanitation attempts and the air would smell of rot decay for months. Rats would flourish, overcome any population areas, and spread black plague type diseases. All modern conveniences would cease - electricity, gasoline powered engines, plumbing, running clean water, waste disposal. Fires would burn out of control for years with nothing to suppress them except running out of fuel.
The global economy would be in tatters. Nearly all farmland in these regions would be poisoned from direct hits or fallout. The global economies and currency reduced to nothing. Barter economies would be the means of survival.
Any possible survivor in these entire regions would deal with physical injuries, emotional PTS injuries of unimaginable degrees, dehydration, starvation, malnutrition, infections, irradiated and toxic foods, untreated long-term ailments would lead to early death, limited or no medical treatment or medicines, literally die from pain, unchecked gang violence and crime, and defensive killings would claim huge % unimaginable today; basically living in hell so that suicide rates would probably reach 90% in these areas for these and more reasons.
Close your eyes for a moment, and imagine everyone you know, every creature, every human, every city, and every joy in life gone and destroyed or damaged or suffering badly. Kids, parents, siblings, spouse, friends, pets, livestock, coworkers - all gone. Your home. Your city. Your retirement plans. Gone. The guilt. The remorse. The anger. The lack of hope of ever having joy in life again, no family, no vacations, no holidays, no safety and comfort. Just pain, anguish, misery, and struggle for survival.
That's what a nuclear war means.
