Room: 115
27.08.2010, Friday 17.00 - 18.15
Facilitator. John Loretz, Program Director, IPPNW
Speaker: Ira Helfand, PSR-USA
A nuclear war using no more than 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs would cause a sudden and prolonged cooling of the global climate. Shorter growing seasons for essential crops would result in severe disruption of agriculture worldwide, inducing a "nuclear famine". Substantial loss of stratospheric ozone would lead to an increase in skin cancers and other UVB-related diseases. Given the size of the world?s remaining nuclear arsenals, the "nuclear winter" described by Carl Sagan and his colleagues remains a possibility that cannot be ignored. A presentation of the scientific findings will be followed by a discussion of the policy lessons for nuclear abolition.