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Asked by elhermano to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 22 Mar 2011 in Categories: General.
Question: Could a nuclear winter be the answer to Global warming?
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Luna Munoz answered on 21 Mar 2011:
I personally don’t see a nuclear winter as the answer to anything, except if we want to create a mass extinction of humans. Although some might agree that a mass extinction of humans could stop the planet from warming up, I don’t think so. It’s too extreme of a solution even if it were effective, and I think there are less riskier ways to solve our problem.
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Melanie Stefan answered on 21 Mar 2011:
It depends on what you want to achieve. If the aim is just to cool the planet down, maybe. But if you want to preserve human lives and currently existing species and ecosystems, no.
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David Pyle answered on 21 Mar 2011:
No! We don’t have a good enough understanding of how the earth’s climate system works to try such a major intervention.. and of course, a series of nuclear explosions would have the potential to spread low levels of radiation around the world.
The closest thing to this which has been suggested to combat global warming is to use rockets to inject a few million tonnes of sulphur dioxide gas into the stratosphere (about 20 – 25 km up), every year. This gas would slowly convert to droplets of sulphuric acid, which would reflect sunlight and cool earth’s surface. The same process happens after volcanic eruptions. The problem with this is that there could be uncontrolled side effects – ozone depletion; changes in weather patterns and rainfall… and so on; and it’s not a solution, it’s just a sticking plaster.. so this procedure is some way off being ready to implement!
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Mark Vesey answered on 22 Mar 2011:
No – nuclear winter would never be the answer to anything because of the damage that would have occured. The principle could in some way be applied (blocking the sun with particles) but not too sure how!
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