Regional Nuclear War Could Create the Mother of all Ozone Holes

As if nuclear war wasn't scary enough, a new computer modeling study by CU-Boulder scientists Brian Toon and Michael Mills shows that even a regional nuclear war (between Pakistan and India, for example) could create a near global hole in the ozone layer. This, aside from the other terrifying effects of such a war, would affect life on Earth for at least a decade.

"The computer-modeling study showed a nuclear war between the two countries involving 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear devices [which are relatively small] on each side would cause massive urban fires and loft as much as 5 million metric tons of soot about 50 miles into the stratosphere [...]. The soot would absorb enough solar radiation to heat surrounding gases, setting in motion a series of chemical reactions that would break down the stratospheric ozone layer protecting Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation."

The study is titled "Massive Global Ozone Loss Predicted Following A Regional Nuclear Conflict" and it was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (April 7th issue)