NATO-Russia Nuclear War Would Entail a Death Toll Over 5 Billion People

As we enter the third year of the Russia-Ukraine war, the specter of all-out nuclear war between NATO and Russia has made a return in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron's warmongering statements and Russian President Vladimir Putin's repeated warnings. Russia's president has repeatedly drawn the red line, saying that if his country's sovereignty is under threat or if the West becomes more involved in the war in Ukraine, he will not hesitate to use te country's nuclear weapons. President Macron repeatedly stressed the need to send NATO troops to Ukraine and said that there were no red lines for him. In a state of war psychosis, as outlined a move to deploy France's nuclear weapons against Russia.

The Castle Bravo nuclear test, the detonation of the most powerful nuclear device ever tested by the United States (Photo: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Ominous scenario

According to simulations, the very first strikes are high-altitude EMP attacks that bake electronics and power grids by creating an electromagnetic pulse of tens of thousands of volts per meter. Subsequent strikes will target command and control systems, military bases and nuclear launchers. Then the other intercontinental ballistic missiles are fired targeting major cities, partly because they have military installations and partly to prevent the enemy's post-war reconstruction. Each impact creates a fireball about as hot as the Sun's core, followed by a radioactive mushroom cloud.

These intense explosions vaporize people nearby and cause fires and blindness further away. The spread of the fireball then causes a blast wave that damages and destroys nearby buildings. Since several US allies have nuclear weapons, Russia will target these countries as well. The two countries will mutually bomb each other's strategic facilities, major economic centers, populous cities, military bases and various nuclear bases. Within the first few hours of nuclear war, hundreds of millions of people will be killed. Firestorms engulf many cities, where gale-force winds fan the flames, igniting anything that can burn, melting glass and some metals, and turning asphalt into flammable hot liquid. 

This image taken in 1970 shows a French nuclear test on Mururoa, in French Polynesia (Photo: AFP)

The resulting smoke rises into the stratosphere, far above the rain clouds that would normally wash the smoke away. This black smoke is heated by sunlight and can float like a hot air balloon for up to a decade. The jet streams are so fast that it only takes a few days for the smoke to spread over much of the northern hemisphere, which will remain freezing cold in summer. Scientific studies estimate that more than five billion people could starve to death; 99 percent of people in the US, Europe, Russia and China would die.

Suddenly, hundreds and thousands of ballistic missiles would be launched during a nuclear war (Photo: DPA Picture-Alliance via AFP)

The fate of survivors

After Europe, the United States and Russia are wiped off the face of the earth, a nuclear holocaust would be a veritable Mad Max scenario. It is important to note that the nuclear winter will not last more than a decade, so it is not the dawn of a new ice age, but is projected to cause immediate climate change within a few weeks.

The phenomenon will disrupt our climate system faster than any living thing can adapt. Winters will be much longer, summers shorter and colder or vanishing. There is less evaporation over the oceans, which means less rain and potentially major droughts. Without summers and sufficient rainfall, growing seasons will shorten or even collapse. Highly productive agricultural regions, which provide food for the majority of humanity, will also fall through. Temperatures in these areas would remain below freezing for years, preventing any crops from growing. 

All of humanity has only a few weeks' worth of crops and food supplies, not enough to survive the drastic drop in production. In addition to all this, it is also worth mentioning that modern agriculture is an extremely complex affair. One only has to think of how food prices started to rise globally after the Russia-Ukraine war. Agriculture requires a huge supply chain, fertilizers, chemicals and a large number of modern specialized machines to achieve productivity. After such a devastating war, there will be no more available fuel, fertilizers, spare parts and a complete lack of the necessary infrastructure.

Cover photo: The Castle Bravo nuclear test, the detonation of the most powerful nuclear device ever tested by the United States (Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)