Such a nuclear war could result in less than 40% of normal light levels near the equator and less than 5% normal light levels near the poles, with freezing temperatures in most temperate regions and severe precipitation reductions - just half of the worldwide average - according to the study. Computer models predict that a large nuclear war, primarily between Russia and the U.S., could inject upwards of 165 million tons of soot into the upper atmosphere from more than 4,000 nuclear bomb explosions and ensuing wildfires. If warring countries unleashed large portions of their nuclear arsenals, the resulting global, sun-blocking cloud would turn the ground to permafrost.Ī nuclear war would cause global blockage of the sun for several years due to injections of black carbon soot into the upper atmosphere, covering most of the planet with black clouds, the researchers said. and Russia - there would be no agricultural production and little food gathering possible in a nuclear winter after an all-out conflagration. The research acknowledges what has been widely agreed upon for decades: In higher latitude countries - such as nuclear powers the U.S. The idea that nuclear war could break out now was unthinkable to me." "This paper was published during this latest invasion by Russia into Ukraine, but our work on it began two years ago. "So, it did not enter my mind that it would be something that could happen anytime soon," Winstead said. Winstead and study co-author Michael Jacobson, professor of forest resources, had to look back at the Cold War era to get information for their review. "In the short term, I viewed it as an abstract concept." "In no way, shape or form had I thought that our work - 'Food Resilience in a Dark Catastrophe: A new Way of Looking at Tropical Wild Edible Plants' - would be immediately relevant while we were working on it," said the research technologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.