What will happen during and after a nuclear war: consequences. The threat of nuclear war is a global problem. What happens if a nuclear war breaks out? Scenario and consequences of the disaster

Survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki share their stories

It was impossible to be mistaken about the moment of the beginning of the nuclear age. The decision by the United States to drop the world's first nuclear attack on two Japanese cities (August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima and three days later on Nagasaki) represented that rare historical moment whose significance does not require deep retrospective analysis. Second World War coming to an end, and soon it would be followed by a cold one. New frontiers of science were opening up, and along with them, new and frightening moral questions. As noted in the magazine Time, the people aboard the Enola Gay were only able to utter two words: "Good God!"

But despite the fact that world leaders, as well as ordinary citizens, immediately began to try to analyze the metaphorical consequences of this tragedy, a certain circle of people had to deal with something else. For the survivors of the disaster, the inhabitants of the destroyed cities, the bombing became an event of a personal nature, and only then turned into a global phenomenon. In the midst of death and destruction, they were saved either by luck, or fate, or ingenuity - and therefore they can still tell the world about what it turns into when people find new cruel ways to destroy each other.

Photographer Haruka Sakaguchi seeks out these people and asks them to share their experiences and write a message to future generations. As we approach the anniversary of the bombings, here is a selection of her work.

Yasujiro Tanaka, age: 75 / location: Nagasaki / distance from epicenter: 3.4 km

Translation of the message

“You have only been given one life, so cherish this moment, cherish this day, be kind to others, be kind to yourself.”

Indications

“I was three at the time of the bombing. I don’t remember much, but I remember that the faces of the people around me turned white so much, as if they were illuminated by a million flashes at the same time.

Then came pitch darkness.

I was covered in the rubble of the house, as I was told. When my uncle finally found me and pulled the tiny body of a three-year-old from the rubble, I was unconscious and my face was disfigured. He was sure that I was dead.

Fortunately, I survived. But from that day on, strange scabs began to form all over the body. I was deaf in my left ear, probably due to the shock wave. More than a decade after the incident, my mother began to notice shards of glass appearing from under her skin - presumably pieces of debris. My younger sister still suffers from acute kidney failure, which requires her to undergo dialysis three times a week. "What have I done to the Americans?" she asks, "why did they do this to me?"

Over the years, I have seen a lot of pain, but I lived a good life, to be honest. Like any witness to that atrocity, my only desire is to be able to live a fulfilling life in a world where people would be kind to each other and to themselves.

Sachiko Matsuo, 83/Nagasaki/1.3 km

Translation of the message

"Peace is our top priority."

Indications

“American B-29 bombers dropped leaflets over the city warning that Nagasaki would turn to ashes on August 8. The leaflets were immediately confiscated. Imperial army Japan. My father was able to get one and believed it. He built a small barrack on the slope of Iwayasan Mountain so that we could hide.

Context

Hitler and the Hiroshima Bomb Mystery

La Repubblica 06.11.2016

Obama in Hiroshima: no apologies

Yomiuri 05/30/2016

Hiroshima: the poisonous shadow of the atomic mushroom

La Stampa 01/10/2013
We climbed there for 2 days, on the 7th and 8th of August. The trail to the barracks was difficult and steep. The transition was very difficult, considering that there were several children and old people among us. On the morning of the 9th, my mother and aunt preferred to stay at home. "Go back to the barracks," demanded the father. "The Americans are following, remember?" They refused, and he frustrated with a quick step went to work.

We changed our minds and decided to stay in the barracks for one more day. This sealed our fate. That morning, at 11:02, an atomic bomb fell on the city. Our family survived - at least those of us who were in the barracks.

A little later we were reunited with my father. However, he soon came down with diarrhea and a high fever. His hair began to fall out, and his skin went dark spots. On August 28 my father died in terrible agony.

If it weren't for Father, we would surely have been severely burned like Aunt Otoku, gone missing like Atsushi, or buried under the rubble of our own house and slowly burned to death. Fifty years later, for the first time since my father died, I saw him in a dream. He was wearing a kimono, and his face lit up with a slight smile. Even though we didn't say a word, I knew he was safe up there in heaven."

Takato Michishita, 78 years old/Nagasaki/4.7 km

Translation of the message

"Dear young people who don't know what war is,

"Wars start quietly. If you feel it coming, it may be too late."

The Japanese Constitution has Article Nine, which deals with international peace. Over the past 72 years, we have not had wars, we have not received injuries and have not maimed others. We flourished as a peaceful nation.

Japan is the only country to survive a nuclear attack. We must speak as strongly as possible about the impossibility of the coexistence of man and nuclear weapons.

I'm afraid that the current government is slowly leading our people to war. At 78, I take the liberty of speaking out against the spread of nuclear weapons. Now is not the time to sit back.

The main victims of war are always ordinary citizens. Dear young people who have never experienced the horrors of war, I fear that some of you take for granted the peace that has been achieved through such hard work.

I pray for world peace. And I pray that never again will Japanese citizens become victims of war. I pray for this with all my heart."

© RIA Novosti, Ovchinnikov

Indications

"Don't go to school today," my mother said.

“Why?” the sister asked.

- Just don't go.

Air raid alarms worked almost constantly then. However, on August 9, they subsided. It was an unusually calm summer morning, with clear blue skies as far as the eye could see. It was on that day that my mother insisted that my older sister skip school. She said she had a bad feeling, which had never happened to her before.

My sister reluctantly, but still stayed at home, and my mother and I - I was 6 years old - went for groceries. People sat on the verandas, enjoying the absence of shrill warning signals. And suddenly one old man yelled “Airplane!” Everyone hurried to makeshift bomb shelters. Mom and I ran to the nearest store. When the roar began, she tore off the tatami mat from the floor, covered me with it, and on top with herself.

Then everything became dazzling white. We were stunned and for 10 minutes we could not move. When we finally crawled out from under the mat, there was glass everywhere, and particles of dust and debris hung in the air. The clear blue sky turned crimson and grey. We rushed home and found my sister there, shell-shocked but otherwise unharmed.

Later we learned that the bomb had fallen a few meters from my sister's school. All those inside died. My mother saved both of us that day.”

Shigeko Matsumoto, 77 years old/Nagasaki/800 m

Translation of the message

“I pray that every person on earth finds peace. Shigeko Matsumoto.

Indications

“On the morning of August 9, 1945, there were no air raid signals. For several days we hid in a local bomb shelter, but soon people began to go home one by one. My brothers and I played in front of the bomb shelter and waited for our grandfather to come for us.

And then, at 11:02 am, the sky turned blindingly white. My brothers and I were knocked down and pushed back into the bomb shelter. We had no idea what happened.

As we sat there, shocked and confused, stumbling people with horrific burns began to appear in the bomb shelter. Their skin peeled off their bodies and faces and hung in tatters to the ground. Their hair was burned almost completely. Many of the wounded fell right at the doors of the bomb shelter, resulting in a pile of mutilated bodies. The stench and heat were unbearable.

My brothers and I were stuck there for three days.

But then grandfather found us and we went home. I will never forget the nightmare that awaited us there. Half-burned bodies lay motionless on the ground, frozen eyes glittered in their sockets. Dead cattle lay on the sides of the road, and their bellies seemed unnaturally large. Thousands of bodies swollen and blue from the water were carried along the river. "Wait wait!" I pleaded as Grandpa took a few steps forward. I was afraid to be alone."

Multimedia

Hiroshima is waiting for an apology?

Reuters May 27, 2016

Atomic bombings Hiroshima and Nagasaki

RIA Novosti 07.08.2013

Yoshiro Yamawaki, 83/Nagasaki/2.2 km

Translation of the message

“The atomic bomb killed people three times,” a professor once said. Indeed, a nuclear explosion has three components—heat, pressure wave, and radiation—and has the unparalleled ability to destroy many people at once.

As a result of a bomb that exploded 500 meters above ground level, a fireball 200-250 meters in diameter was formed, swallowing up tens of thousands of houses and families buried under them. The pressure wave created a stream of air with a speed of up to 70 m / s - twice as much as during a typhoon - and he instantly leveled houses within a radius of 2 km from the epicenter of the explosion. And radiation to this day continues to negatively affect the health of survivors, forcing them to fight cancer and other serious diseases.

I was 11 at the time, the bomb fell 2 km from my house. I was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few years ago and underwent surgery in 2008 and 2010. The consequences of that bombing also affected our children and grandchildren.

You can learn about the horrors of nuclear war in the atomic bomb museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from the stories of eyewitnesses who survived the Hibakusha catastrophe, and archival documents of that period.

Under no circumstances should nuclear weapons be used against people. However, the arsenals of nuclear powers like the United States and Russia consist of more than 15,000 such weapons. Moreover, scientific and technological progress has led to the emergence of a new generation of bombs, the explosion from which will be a thousand times stronger than during the attack on Hiroshima.

Weapons with such lethality must be abolished on a global scale. However, in the current political climate, we still cannot reach a consensus and implement a ban on nuclear weapons. This is largely due to the boycott of the agreement by the nuclear powers.

I have already come to terms with the fact that the first generation of Hibakusha will not live to see the ban on the use of nuclear weapons. I pray that future generations will be able to come to an agreement and work together to free the world from nuclear weapons.”

Indications

“One incident I will never forget was the cremation of my father. My brothers and I carefully laid his blackened, bloated body on the burnt rafters in front of the factory where we found him, and set him on fire. Only the ankles protruded clumsily from the flames that engulfed the rest of the body.

When we returned there the next morning to collect his ashes, we found that the cremation was only partially completed. Only the wrists, ankles and part of the abdominal cavity. The rest began to decay. I could not bear the sight and urged the brothers to leave it there. Finally, my older brother agreed, offering to take a piece of his skull before leaving - in Japan there is a funeral tradition according to which, after cremation, family members take a piece of the deceased's skull with chopsticks and pass it around.

But as soon as we touched him with chopsticks, the skull cracked, and the half-burned brain began to pour out. We screamed and ran away, leaving my father lying there. We left him in a terrible state."

Emiko Okada, 80 years old/Hiroshima/2.8 km

Translation of the message

“War is one of two things: either you kill or you.

Many children still suffer from poverty, hunger and discrimination.

Once I saw a child who died of hypothermia. He had a stone in his mouth.

Children are our greatest blessing.

And for the war, I think adults are responsible. Emiko Okada.

Indications

"Hiroshima is known as the 'city of the yakuza'. Why do you think? On August 6, 1945, thousands of children were orphaned. Left without parents, they were forced to take care of themselves. They stole to survive. And they fell under the influence of bad people who subsequently bought them and sold them. Orphans who grew up in Hiroshima have a particular hatred for adults.

I was eight when the bomb was dropped. My older sister is 12. She left for work early in the morning and never returned. Her parents searched for her for many months but did not find her or her remains. Until their death, they refused to publish an obituary in the hope that she managed to escape somehow.

I also suffered from radiation: after the attack, I vomited endlessly.

Her hair fell out, her gums bled, and her condition prevented her from attending school. My grandmother felt deeply about the suffering of her children and grandchildren and prayed. "How cruel, how unbearably cruel. How I wish this never happened..." She repeated this constantly, until her death.

The war was the result of selfish acts of adults. And the victims were children, many children. Alas, all this is relevant now. As adults, we must do everything we can to protect the lives and dignity of our children. Children are our greatest blessing."

Masakatsu Obata, 99 years old/Nagasaki/1.5 km

Translation of the message

“I often think that people go to war to satisfy their greed. If we get rid of this and start helping each other, we can coexist without war, I'm sure of it. I hope to continue to live side by side with those who share this logic.

My point is this: it's complicated by differences in people's thinking and ideologies."

Indications

“On the morning of August 9, I was working at a Mitsubishi plant. An alarm sounded. "I wonder if there's going to be another air raid today," one of my colleagues wondered. And at that moment, the alarm turned into an air attack alert.

I decided not to leave the walls of the plant. The air raid signal eventually died down. It was about 11 am. I was looking forward to dinner so I could eat my baked potato when suddenly a blinding light flashed around me. I immediately fell face down. slate roof and the walls of the factory crumbled and began to fall on my back. I thought I would die. At that moment, I thought about my wife and daughter, who was only a few months old.

After a couple of minutes, I got to my feet. The roof of our building was completely blown away. I looked at the sky. The walls were also destroyed - as were the houses that surrounded the plant - revealing a completely empty space. The noise of the factory engine is gone. The silence was terrifying. I immediately went to the nearest bomb shelter.

There I ran into a colleague whom the bombardment had found outside. His face and body were swollen, having grown one and a half times. The skin melted, exposing muscle tissue. A group of students helped him in the bomb shelter.
“How do I look?” he asked me. I didn't have the heart to answer.

- You have severe edema, - that's all I could say. He died three days later, I was told."

Kumiko Arakawa, 92/Nagasaki/2.9 km

Translation of the message

Ms. Arakawa has little to no memory of surviving the bombing on August 9, losing both her parents and four sisters. When asked to write a message for future generations, she replied, "I can't think of anything."

Indications

“I was 20 years old the day the bomb was dropped. I lived in Sakamoto-Machi - 500 meters from the epicenter - with my parents and seven sisters and a brother. When the situation in the war escalated, my three younger sisters were sent to the suburbs, and my younger brother went to Saga to serve in the army.

I worked in the prefecture. As of April 1945, our branch was temporarily moved to the territory of a local school, 2.9 km from the epicenter, since there was a wooden building(highly flammable in the event of an airstrike - author's note). On the morning of August 9, I went up to the roof with a few friends to look at the city after a short air raid. Raising my eyes to the sky, I saw that something oblong was falling from there. At the same moment, a flash lit up the sky, and my friends and I hurried to hide in the stairwell.

After some time, when the turmoil subsided, we moved towards the park for security reasons. Hearing that access to Sakamoto-Machi was closed due to fires, one of my friends and I decided to stay in Oura. The next day, on my way home, I met an acquaintance who told me that he had seen my parents in a bomb shelter nearby. I went there and found both with severe burns. They died two days later.

My older sister died at home from an explosion. Two younger sisters were seriously injured and died the same day. Another sister was found dead in the lobby of our house. Throughout Nagasaki, countless tombstones with names can be found, but there are no remains or ashes under them. I find comfort in the fact that the ashes of all six members of my family were buried, and they rested in peace together.

At the age of 20, I had to take on the responsibility of supporting the surviving family members. I don’t remember how I helped my younger sisters finish school, who we relied on and how we survived. Some have asked me about what I saw on my way home the day after the bombing, August 10: "You must have seen a lot of dead bodies," they said, but I don't remember any. I know it sounds weird, but it's true.

Now I am 92. And every day I pray that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will never know war.”

Fujio Torikoshi, 86 years old/Hiroshima/2 km

Translation of the message

"Life is an amazing treasure."

Indications

“On the morning of August 6, my mother and I were preparing to go to the hospital together. A few days earlier, I had been diagnosed with beriberi and had taken time off from school to get tested. During breakfast, I heard the low hum of engines overhead. Even then, I was immediately able to identify the B-29 by ear. I went outside, but I didn't see any planes.

I was confused and looked to the northeast, where I saw a black dot in the sky. Suddenly, it burst into a ball of dazzling light that filled everything around. A gust of hot wind hit my face; I immediately closed my eyes and sank to the ground. And when I tried to get up, another gust of wind caught me, and I hit something hard. What happened next, I don't remember.

When I finally came to my senses, I found myself lying next to the fire-fighting container. Feeling a sharp, intense burning sensation in my face and hands, I tried to dip them into that container. The water only made it worse. Somewhere nearby, I heard my mother's voice. "Fujio! Fujio!" She picked me up in her arms and I grabbed her desperately. "It's burning, mom! It's burning!"

Over the next few days, I alternately regained consciousness, then passed out again. My face was so swollen that it was impossible to open my eyes. I was treated in a bomb shelter for a while, then sent to the Hatsukaichi hospital, and finally brought home wrapped in bandages from head to toe. For several days I lay unconscious, struggling with a high fever. When I finally woke up, a stream of light flooded into my eyes through the bandages, and I saw my mother sitting next to me and playing a lullaby on the harmonica.

I was told that I would only live to 20. But here I am, 70 years later, and now I am 86. All I want is to forget all this, but a huge scar on my neck reminds me every day of that bomb. We cannot continue to sacrifice precious lives in war. All that remains is to pray — earnestly and unceasingly — for world peace.”

Inosuke Hayasaki, 86 years old/Nagasaki/1.1 km

Translation of the message

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to meet with you and talk about world peace and the consequences of the atomic bombing.

I, Hayasaki, deeply appreciate the organization of this meeting. You are far from the United States - your path was, I believe, long and difficult. 72 years have passed since the explosion - the young people of the current generation, alas, have already forgotten about the tragedies of the war and have ceased to even pay attention to the Nagasaki Bell. Perhaps this is for the best - as evidence that the current generation is enjoying the world. And yet, when I see people of my generation join hands in front of the Peace Bell, I mentally join them.

May the citizens of Nagasaki never forget the day when 74,000 people turned to dust in the blink of an eye. At the present time, it seems to me that the Americans want peace even more than we Japanese do. And during the war, we were told that it was the greatest honor to die for our country and rest in Yasukuni Shrine.

We were taught that we should rejoice, not cry, when relatives die in the war. We could not utter a word in response to these cruel and ruthless demands; We didn't have any freedom then. In addition, the whole country was starving - the store shelves were completely empty. The kids begged their mothers for food and they couldn't do anything - can you imagine what it was like for those mothers?

Indications

“The victims were lying right on the railway tracks, burned and blackened. As I passed by, I heard them moaning in agony and begging for water.

I heard a man say that water can kill those who are burned. I was just torn to pieces. I knew that these people had only a few hours to live, maybe only minutes. They no longer belong to this world.

"Water... water..."

I decided to look for water for them. Fortunately, I found a burning mattress nearby, tore off a piece of it, dipped it in a nearby rice field and began to offer it to the victims. There were about 40 of them. I went back and forth, from the rice field to railway tracks. They drank greedily muddy water. Among them was my close friend Yamada. "Yamada! Yamada!" I exclaimed and felt a little dizzy when I saw a familiar face. I put my hand on his chest. His skin peeled off, revealing flesh. I was horrified. "Water…" he muttered. I squeezed water into his mouth. Five minutes later, he expired.

Most of the people I cared for died.

I can't stop thinking that I killed those unfortunates. What if I didn't give them water? Would they survive? I think about it every day."

We wouldn't be where we are if it weren't for the countless lives lost during the bombing and the many survivors who still live in pain and struggle. We cannot disturb this peace - it is priceless. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died because of the irresistible greed of the Japanese military elite. We cannot forget those young soldiers who silently yearned for their parents, wives and children and died in the midst of the chaos of war. American soldiers faced the same hardships. We must preserve the world, even if it makes us poorer. When the world is gone, smiles disappear from faces. There are no winners or losers in today's wars - we are all defeated as our homes and cities become uninhabitable. We must remember that happiness today is built on the hopes and dreams of those who are no longer with us.

Japan is a phenomenal country, but we must take into account the fact that although we fought with the United States, we subsequently received help from them. We must be aware of the pain that we brought to our neighbors during the war. Help and good deeds are often forgotten, and stories of mutilation and atrocities are passed down from generation to generation - this is how the world works. The ability to live in peace is the most valuable resource in any country. I pray that Japan will remain a shining example of non-conflict and harmony. I pray that this message will resonate with young people around the world. And forgive the old man his handwriting."

Ryouga Suwa, 84 / Hiroshima / entered the affected area after the bombing and was exposed to radiation

Translation of the message

“In the Buddhist lexicon there is a word "gumyouchou". It refers to a bird that has one body and two heads. Even if the ideologies and philosophies of the two entities are different, their lives are connected by a single form, which is a demonstration of one of the Buddhist principles through the image of a bird.

It would be ideal if all of us could cultivate the ability to treat each other with respect and not get frustrated by disagreements.”

Indications

“I represent the 16th generation of the high priests of Zoyoi Temple in Otemachi. The temple was originally located 500 meters from the epicenter and was instantly destroyed, along with 1,300 houses that formed the area now called the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. My parents are still considered missing to this day, and my sister Reiko was declared dead.

I was evacuated to Miyoshi-shi, a city 50 km from the epicenter. People like me are called orphans of the atomic bomb. Then I was 12 years old. When I returned to Hiroshima on September 16, a month and 10 days after the explosion, only the overturned tombstones of the cemetery church remained of the city property. Hiroshima was a lifeless wasteland. I remember the feeling of shock when I saw Setonai Island on the horizon, where many buildings used to rise.

In 1951, the temple was moved to its current location. The new Zoyoi was restored by our supporters and prospered along with the finally resurrected city of Hiroshima. Here we adhere to the anti-war and anti-nuclear philosophy and annually cooperate with the Peace Memorial Park to hold relevant lectures and events, as well as to implement projects for the restoration of buildings destroyed by the explosion.”

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

When the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, the world found itself on the brink of a global catastrophe - a large-scale nuclear war between the two superpowers, the USSR and America. What would be the remnants of human civilization after a massive exchange of blows? The military, of course, predicted the outcome with the help of computers. They like to calculate everything, this is their forte.

Walter Mondale once said that "there will be no veterans of the third world war." Contrary to this seemingly absolutely correct remark, in just a few decades that have passed since the creation of the atomic bomb, the world has turned into a huge powder keg. Although, if powder. By the end of the Cold War, the number of strategic nuclear warheads and related intermediate-range munitions alone in the arsenals of NATO and the Warsaw Pact exceeded 24,000.

Their total capacity was 12,000 megatons, more than enough to repeat the tragedy in Hiroshima about a million times. And this is not taking into account tactical nuclear weapons, various mines stuffed with atomic warheads, torpedoes and artillery shells. Without an arsenal of chemical warfare agents. Apart from bacteriological and climatic weapons. Would this be enough to bring about Armageddon? The calculations showed that - for the eyes.

Of course, it was difficult for analysts to take into account all the factors, but they tried, in various institutions. The forecasts turned out to be frankly depressing. It was calculated that during a large-scale nuclear war, the parties would be able to bring down about 12,000 bombs and missiles of various bases with a total capacity of about 6,000 Mt on each other's heads. What could this number mean?

And this means massive strikes, first of all, on headquarters and communication centers, locations of intercontinental ballistic missile silos, air defense positions, large military and naval formations. Then, as the conflict grows, it will be the turn of industrial centers, in other words, cities, that is, zones with a high degree urbanization, and, of course, population density. Part of the nuclear warheads would explode above the surface to cause maximum damage, part - at high altitudes, to destroy satellites, communications systems and the power grid.

Once upon a time, in the midst of cold war, implying all this madness, the military strategy was called the second strike doctrine. US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara defined it as "mutual assured destruction." American generals calculated that the US army and navy would have to destroy about a quarter of the population of the USSR and more than half of its industrial capacity before they themselves were destroyed.

We should probably not forget that, in terms of the invention of new weapons, mankind has advanced much further than in the manufacture of anti-cancer drugs, so that the American bomb “Kid”, which destroyed Hiroshima in August 1945, is nothing compared to modern exhibits. So, for example, the power of the SS-18 Satan strategic missile is about 20 Mt (that is, millions of tons per TNT equivalent). This is approximately one and a half thousand "Kids".

"The thicker the grass, the easier it is to mow"

This phrase was said by Alaric, the legendary Gothic leader who made proud Rome shudder. In a hypothetical nuclear war, the inhabitants of all large cities without exception would become this very grass. About 70% of the population Western Europe, North America and former USSR were city dwellers and suburbanites. When exchanging massive nuclear strikes they would be doomed to immediate death. Calculations show that the explosion of even such an obsolete bomb by today's standards as the "Kid" over a city the size of New York, Tokyo or Moscow would result in the immediate death of millions of people. Just imagine what losses could be if thousands of atomic, hydrogen and neutron bombs were used.

This, at one time, was more or less accurately predicted. As a result of a large-scale nuclear war in most of their cities opposing sides the fate of radioactive ruins was prepared. The shock waves and heat pulse would destroy buildings and highways, bridges, dams and dams over areas of millions of square kilometers in a matter of seconds. This is not so much, in relation to the entire land surface of the Northern Hemisphere. But, enough to start the end.

The number of people who evaporated, burned out, died in the rubble or caught a lethal dose of radiation should have been calculated in seven figures. Electromagnetic pulses that propagate during high-altitude nuclear explosions over tens of thousands of kilometers caused paralysis of all power supply and communication systems, destroyed all electronics and would have led to an accident at those thermal and nuclear power plants that miraculously managed to survive after the bombing.

Most likely, they would have violated the electromagnetic field of the Earth. As a result, it would provoke devastating natural disasters: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes.

There is an assumption according to which, with the massive use of weapons mass destruction the position of the earth relative to the sun would change. But, we will not deal with this hypothesis, we will limit ourselves to such “trifles” as the destruction of storage facilities for spent nuclear power plant assemblies and the depressurization of military laboratories producing bacteriological weapons. Some next superinfluenza, hundreds of times more deadly than the infamous "Spanish flu", once in the wild, would have completed the work that was started by the pandemics of cholera and plague, raging over radioactive blockages overflowing with decaying corpses.

Mankind has accumulated millions of tons of toxic chemical waste, dioxin-containing, in the first place. Accidents that occur from time to time, in which an insignificant part of them end up in river basins, lead to environmental disasters on a local scale. It is better not to imagine what could have happened in a one-to-one disaster. Serious scientific sources assure that this complex issue has not been deeply investigated. As you can see, it's useless. And so it is clear that this would be the end.

Bah, yes, we forgot about penetrating radiation - the fourth factor that goes after thermal radiation, a shock wave and an electromagnetic pulse that distinguishes nuclear weapons from other products that are designed to destroy their own kind. Colossal territories would be poisoned by radioactive contamination, the regeneration of which would take whole centuries. AT countryside the radiation would have hit the crops, leading to starvation among the survivors.

Increased doses of radiation are a source of cancer, pathologies in newborns and genetic mutations due to disruption of DNA chains. In a post-apocalyptic world, after the healthcare systems were destroyed, these issues from the field of modern medicine would have moved under the jurisdiction of sorcerers, because the survival of individual doctors does not at all mean the preservation of medicine as a whole. Millions of those burned and maimed at the first stage of a nuclear conflict, immediately after the exchange of blows, do not count. They would have died in the first hours, days and months after the nuclear Apocalypse. Long before the advent of witch doctors.

"And those of you who survive will envy the dead"

And these ominous words were said by John Silver, one of the most famous heroes of the English writer R. L. Stevenson. They are said for a completely different reason, but surprisingly fit into the context of describing the world after a nuclear war. Scientists agreed that the nitrogen oxides generated in the fireballs of nuclear explosions would be thrown into the stratosphere, where they would destroy the ozone layer. Restoring it could take decades, and this is in best case- at our level scientific knowledge no more precise timing can be predicted. Once (about 600 million years ago), the ozone layer of the stratosphere played the role of a kind of cradle of life, protecting the Earth's surface from the deadly ultraviolet radiation Sun.

According to a report by the US National Academy of Sciences, an explosion of 12,000 Mt of nuclear weapons could destroy 70% of the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere - presumably the theater of war, and 40% over the South, which would lead to the most dire consequences for all life forms. Man and animals would go blind, burns and skin cancers would become commonplace. Many plants and microorganisms would disappear forever, finally and irrevocably.

"Our arrows will cover the sun from you"

This famous phrase: "Our arrows will cover the sun from you," said the truce of the Persian king Xerxes to the Spartan king Leonidas, who fortified himself in the Thermopylae passage. Leonid's answer is known from the history books: "Well, then, we will fight in the shadows." Fortunately, the brave Spartans did not know the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. In the "shadow cast by atomic arrows", there would simply be no one to fight.

In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was impossible to localize the fires due to the water pipes destroyed by the shock wave. A "firestorm" developed. This is the name of a powerful fire, which causes an intense vortex movement of air. The city was covered with a huge thundercloud, it started to rain - black, greasy and oily. Attempts to fight the fire, which was generated by an atomic flash and many short circuits in the power grid, ended in a complete fiasco.

We can say with absolute certainty that in the event of a large-scale nuclear war, there could be no talk of any such attempts, because there would simply be no one to put out the fires. In general, the fire would have dispersed in earnest, where is the sea of ​​\u200b\u200bflame that engulfed Dresden after ritual raids by allied aircraft. In our time, industrial centers have colossal reserves of paper, wood, oil, oils, gasoline, kerosene, plastics, rubber and other combustible materials that are capable of blazing to blacken the sky. Throwing into the atmosphere over the Northern Hemisphere millions of tons of particles of smoke, ash, highly toxic substances and highly dispersed radioactive dust.

Calculations prove that in a few days, impenetrable clouds comparable in size to continents would cover the Sun over Europe and North America, and impenetrable darkness would descend on the Earth. The air temperature would drop by 30 - 40°C. The earth's surface was struck by bitter frosts, which in a short period of time would have turned it into permafrost. The cooling would have continued for centuries, exacerbated by the gradual decrease in the temperature of the oceans. That is, as the end result of a large-scale nuclear war is a climate catastrophe.

At first, severe storms would have arisen due to significant temperature differences between the continents and the ocean. Then, as temperatures dropped, they would have subsided a little, the surface of the seas and oceans was covered at first with ice chips, and then with hummocks. Even at the equator it would be more than cool, about - 50 degrees Celsius! Animals and plants that would have survived in a nuclear cataclysm would certainly have died from such cold weather. Extinction would be massive. The jungle would have turned into a forest bound by severe frosts, a taiga of dead vines and palm trees. Well, people who would miraculously be able to survive would probably know that there is real hunger.

Radiation would permeate almost everything - air, water, and soil. Surviving viruses and insects, subjected to powerful mutations, would spread new deadly diseases. A few years after a nuclear war, at best, an insignificant shadow would remain of a population of seven billion - about 20 million people scattered across the Earth immersed in nuclear twilight. Maybe it would have been Twilight of the Gods. Humanity would return to its primitive state under incomparably worse conditions environment. I don’t want to think about looting, ritual murders and cannibalism, but probably the most terrible pictures of the apocalypse drawn by science fiction writers would become commonplace.

Degenerate descendants of the Normans

There is no doubt that humanity would be very lucky if it could survive the cataclysm at all. And what knowledge would he have preserved, and the memories of cars, airplanes or televisions transmitted from generation to generation would not become akin to the legends that Plato brought to us. Albert Einstein once said: “I don’t know what weapons will be, but I know for sure that the Fourth World War will be with stones and sticks.” Do you think this is not a very optimistic forecast? And you imagine yourself as just Robinson on a desert island and honestly admit: will you be able to recreate a hot water system, design a radio receiver or just a telephone?

Alexander Gorbovsky in his book "Fourteen Millennia Ago" cited as an example the fate of the Norman settlements that were founded in the 14th century on the coast of North America. Their sad fate is very indicative. In a nutshell, it looks like this. The colonists brought with them from Scandinavia the knowledge of pottery, the ability to smelt and process metal. But when communication with the mother country was interrupted, they were assimilated by the local Iroquois tribes, who were at a much lower stage of development, and knowledge was lost forever. The descendants of the settlers were thrown back into the Stone Age.

When European conquerors arrived 200 years later, they found only tribes that were distinguished by fair skin and used a number of Scandinavian words. And, that was it! The great-grandchildren of the Vikings had no idea about the collapsed and moss-covered structures that were once iron-smelting furnaces and mining mines. But they did not have a nuclear winter ...

In recent days, everyone is just discussing whether the third world war between the USA and Russia will begin or not. In the media and social networks, you constantly come across materials about the coming "nuclear apocalypse", which in turn provokes attacks of fear and hysteria in many. Over the past years, we have already managed to forget the warning signals, and the younger generation knows about the threat only from computer games. Life tells what to do if a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon.

Outside, of course, is not the Caribbean crisis, but the degree of paranoia in the air has risen sharply. And although no one promises to turn other countries into "nuclear ashes", there are still enough reasons. The last of these is the US threat to launch a missile attack on Syria.

The nuclear threat has already been erased from people's memory. It is unlikely that anyone will now name what one long beep and two short ones mean, or quickly answer where the nearest bomb shelter is. A nuclear mushroom on the horizon has become something like a zombie apocalypse - pure fantasy from books about stalkers and the third world war. We imagined how a reader of such literature would survive after a real nuclear strike.

First day

The threat of nuclear war was a tempting prospect for me. "Battles with marauders", "survival in radioactive forests", "collisions with mutants" - it sounded even cooler than "zombie apocalypse". I surfed the Web, found out that if something happened, Washington would start bombing cities at six o'clock in the evening, and read what products to take. I went to the dacha and took grandfather's cartridges - in the event of an apocalypse, they will become the most valuable resource. In addition, I bought a gun through an anonymous browser. In addition, I bought a used car so that I could drive into the forest after the explosion.

Valuable Tips:

• The need to take weapons and ammunition with you is one of the most common myths about a nuclear apocalypse. Marauders and even more so mutants are nothing more than a figment of the imagination of writers. If you take weapons and ammunition with you, then you will have to part with them at the first checkpoint.
• Instead of stuffing your backpack with pasta, pack as much medicine as you can. You will need antibiotics, insulin, and a variety of wound care products. Please note: you will not get really effective anti-radiation agents in advance. Drinking iodine, as most guides advise, is also not worth it, except for complacency.

Second day

A huge nuclear mushroom appeared on the horizon. I admired it from the window of my house, then quickly grabbed my backpack and went down to the garage. I turned on the car and drove into the forests - to survive.

Valuable Tips:

• You hardly need transportation. And in the forest you will definitely not hide from the explosion (and subsequent radioactive fallout). If after the explosion you find yourself far from the affected area, then the car, of course, will help. However, a pre-prepared car in the garage of your home is not the most useful thing. In the first hours after the explosion, it is better to sit at home. If the glasses survived, then just hang out a signal for help and wait. You need to wait somewhere for three days - during this time the radioactive background will significantly decrease.
• The walls of the house are good at weakening radiation pollution. Prepare the most closed clothing and try to assess the situation. Don't panic. Turn on the TV and try to understand what happened - an explosion at a nuclear power plant, a terrorist attack, or the third world war began. After that, wait for the rescuers or the military. Only they really know what to do. Memos that have been roaming the Web for decades, and guides from stalker forums, are best not to believe. Only the military has real manuals, and they are unsuitable for civilians.
• It is better not to stare at the "mushroom" - you can earn a retinal burn.
• Don't really count on mobile communications - if the third world war starts, then most likely there will be no access to it.

Valuable Tips:

• Not all metro stations are suitable. You want deep stations that have sliding doors and good ventilation. Among the deep stations, one can note "Admiralteyskaya" in St. Petersburg and the station "Park Pobedy" in Moscow. The subway can indeed be more useful than the bomb shelter, as it is regularly inspected. But it is also not recommended to sit in the subway for a long time. When the background subsides, try to leave the affected area. At the same time, it is better to move underground - reduce your stay on the surface to a minimum.
• Once again: no need to go anywhere or run away. Try to figure out which blast zone you are in.

Valuable Tips:

• Don't expect your life in a bomb shelter to be filled with drama. Kitchen, toilet, bedroom - that's your itinerary for the next couple of weeks.
• The main entertainment is, of course, information from the outside. Bomb shelters are equipped (if you're lucky) with points of contact.
• Despite the nervous situation, it is better not to run around the bomb shelter, so as not to increase the production of carbon dioxide.

Day ten

We went up to the surface for the first time. Now the adventures should definitely begin: searching for food, hunting, fighting marauders.

• If you still have to look for food, then do it as far as possible from the affected area. We are talking about 100 kilometers from the epicenter nuclear explosion. Forget about hunting cats and dogs - the simpler the food, the less nuclides it contains. Therefore, it is better to do with plant foods. But in general, of course, it is wiser not to get food, but to eat exclusively canned food.
• Better to stay with the military as long as possible. The military will collect buses for emergency evacuation of people. After being transferred to the campground, you will need to change clothes and undergo decontamination. If the dose of radiation received is too high, you will be sent to the hospital. In addition, you need to get anti-radiation products.
• In the event of the start of a third world war, they will come for you from the military registration and enlistment office. The rest will wait for the transfer to the rear.
• In the event of a single explosion, you will be transferred to children's camps and rest homes for temporary accommodation.

The mid-1970s became something like a turning point for the people of the Earth, when many finally began to understand all the possible consequences of an interstate nuclear exchange that could exceed all the worst forecasts.

For modern world nuclear war is the most likely factor man-made disaster followed by the destruction of all wildlife. Decrease in temperature, ionizing radiation, decrease in atmospheric precipitation, penetration of various toxic substances into the atmosphere, as well as an increase in the impact of UV radiation - the simultaneous impact of all these factors will lead to an irreversible disruption of life communities and inability to regenerate over a long period of time.

Scientists foresee three possible effect world conflict with the use of nuclear weapons. Firstly, as a result of the global decrease in temperature by tens of degrees, as well as a decrease in the illumination of the planet, the so-called nuclear winter and nuclear night will come. All vital processes on Earth will be cut off from the main source of energy - the sun. Secondly, as a result of the destruction of storage facilities for radioactive waste and nuclear power plants, pollution of the entire world territory will occur. The third factor is planetary famine. Thus, nuclear war will lead to the reduction of agricultural plants.

The nature of the influence of a nuclear war of universal scope on the world around us is such that, whenever it arises, the result is the same - a global biological catastrophe, one might say the end of the world.

The mid-1970s became something like a turning point for the people of the Earth, when many finally began to understand all the possible consequences of an interstate nuclear exchange that could exceed all the worst forecasts. However, despite this, all the attention of scientists was riveted to the study of direct damaging ground factors, the influence of air explosions of a nuclear nature, in fact, they studied thermal radiation, a shock wave and radioactive fallout. Moreover, scientists began to take into account global environmental problems.

If a nuclear war starts on the planet, as a result of which explosions of nuclear bombs occur, this will lead to thermal radiation, as well as radioactive fallout of a local nature. Indirect consequences, such as the destruction of energy distribution systems, communication systems and social fabrics, are likely to lead to serious problems. As long as there is a possibility that a nuclear war will break out, the catastrophic impact of such a tragedy on the biological sphere should not be left to chance, because the consequences may not be predictable.

Influence of consequences of nuclear war on freshwater ecosystems.

Probable climatic changes will make the ecosystem of continental water bodies vulnerable.

Reservoirs that contain fresh water are divided into two types: flowing (streams and rivers) and stagnant (lakes and ponds). A sharp drop in temperature and a decrease in precipitation will affect the rapid reduction in the amount of fresh water that is stored in lakes and rivers. Groundwater will be affected less noticeably and more slowly.

The quality of lakes is determined by their nutrient content, underlying rocks, size, bottom substrates, amount of precipitation and other parameters. The main indicators of the response of freshwater systems to climate change are the likely decrease in temperature and decrease in insolation. The leveling of temperature fluctuations is predominantly expressed in large reservoirs with fresh water. However, fresh water ecosystems, unlike the ocean, are forced to suffer significantly from temperature changes, as a consequence of the fact that a nuclear war will occur.

The possibility of exposure to low temperatures over a long period can lead to the formation of a thick layer of ice on the surface of water bodies. As a result, the surface of a shallow lake will be covered with a significant layer of ice, covering most of its territory.

Over the past years, Russian specialists have gradually accumulated statistical data on lakes, which include information on the area and volume of water bodies. It should be noted that most of the lakes, from among those that are known and accessible to man, are listed as small. Such reservoirs are in a group that will be subject to freezing almost to the entire depth.

The study, conducted by Ponomarev together with his collaborators, within the framework of the Scope-Anyway project, is considered one of the main directions in assessing the consequences of a nuclear war for lake ecosystems. In this study, we used a simulation model of the relationship between lakes and their watersheds, as well as the impact of industry on the state of lakes, developed by the Research Center for Computing Technologies of St. Petersburg at the Academy of Sciences. The study considered three biotic components - zooplankton, phytoplankton and detritus. They directly interact with phosphorus, nitrogen, insolation, air temperature and radiation. According to various sources, the alleged nuclear war began either in July or February.

Changes in climatic conditions will lead to longer-term and serious consequences of a nuclear war. In the course of this development, light and temperature will return to their original levels, as winter approaches.

If a nuclear war occurs in winter and causes climatic disturbances during this period, in places where the water of lakes has normal temperature, approximately zero, this will lead to an increase in the ice cover.

The threat to shallow lakes is too obvious, since water may freeze to the very bottom, which will lead to the death of the main number of living microorganisms. Thus, real climate disturbances in winter will affect freshwater ecosystems that do not freeze in normal conditions, and lead to very serious biological consequences. Current climate disturbances, which began in the spring or were delayed as a result of a nuclear war, could delay the melting process.

With the arrival of frost at the end spring period, perhaps, there will be a global death of the living components of ecosystems under the influence of a decrease in temperature and a decrease in illumination. If the temperature drops to below zero in the summer, the consequences may not be so disastrous, because many stages of development life cycles will be behind. The severity of the consequences will depend on the duration of the cold. Next spring, the duration of the impact will be especially acute.

Climate disturbances in autumn will lead to the least consequences for the ecosystem of northern water bodies, because at that time all living organisms will have time to go through the stages of reproduction. Even if the abundance of phytoplankton, invertebrates and decomposers is reduced to a minimum, it is not the end of the world once the climate returns to normal state they will be reborn. But all the same, residual phenomena can still manifest themselves for a long time on the functioning of the entire ecosystem, and irreversible changes are quite likely.

Consequences of a nuclear war

The likely consequences of a nuclear war for living organisms and the environment have been the focus of attention of many researchers for 40 years after Japan was exposed to atomic weapons.

As a result of the analysis of data on the susceptibility of ecosystems to the consequences that a nuclear war will entail on the ecological environment, the following conclusions become obvious:

The planet's ecosystems are vulnerable to extreme climate disturbances. However, not the same, but depending on their geographical location, the type of system and the time of year in which the disturbances occur.

As a result of the synergy of causes and the spread of their impact from one ecosystem to another, shifts occur much larger than could be expected with a separate action of disturbances. In the case when atmospheric pollution, radiation and an increase in UV radiation act separately, they do not lead to large-scale catastrophic consequences. But if these factors appear at the same time, the result can be detrimental to ecosystems with a sensitive nature due to its synergy, which is comparable to the end of the world for living organisms.

If a nuclear war happens, the fires that arose as a result of the exchange of atomic bombs can occupy a significant part of the territory.

The revival of ecosystems after the impact of climatic cataclysms of the acute stage, following a nuclear war on a huge scale, will depend on the level of adaptation to natural disturbances. In some types of ecosystems, the primary damage can be quite large, and renewal is slow, and absolute revival to the original untouched state is generally impossible.

Episodic radioactive fallout can have an important degree of impact on ecosystems.

Significant temperature fluctuations can cause very high damage, even if they last for a short period of time.

The ecosystem of the seas is vulnerable enough for a long-term decrease in illumination.

To describe biological responses to stresses on a planetary scale, it is necessary to develop the next generation of ecosystem models and create a capacious database on their individual components and all ecosystems in general, subject to various experimental disturbances. It has been a long time since important attempts were made to experimentally describe the effects of nuclear war and its effect on biological circuits. For today this problem is one of the most important that met on the path of human existence.

When in the middle of the last century the whole world began to actively atomic bombs, they were often tested on small ocean islands-atolls. The population was, of course, evacuated before that, but no one took plants and animals anywhere - and after the explosion, there was almost nothing left of them.

At the same time, biologists came up with the idea to follow how the ecosystem would be restored in the place of nuclear explosions.

For 25 years, environmentalists have been watching the Fangataufa atoll, which belongs to French Polynesia, here in the late 60s and early 70s, France detonated four atomic bombs.

The living world of coral atolls is very rich, but in this case, immobile mollusks, which also live for a long time, were chosen as the object of observation. As Pierre Legendre, of the University of Montreal and one of the co-authors of the paper, says: “ ... in the absence of any emergency situations, the same mollusk will sit in the same place for three years, and four, and ten years in a row ...«

Between 1972 and 1997, researchers counted five times how many mollusks appeared here, what species they belong to, and whether the new ecological picture corresponds to what was seen here before the explosions.

On the one hand, the results were encouraging: life in the waters of the atoll, judging by the molluscs, recovered, the diversity of species turned out to be either the same as it was before the explosion, or even richer. With one "but" - the specific structure has become different. For example, carnivorous mollusks now prospered, while the number of herbivores became small.

Although atomic explosions and wiped out all life from the vicinity of Fangatauf, the atoll itself did not go under water, the temperature of the environment did not change here, and the ocean currents remained the same. Living organisms began to come here from neighboring territories not affected by nuclear tests (the same mollusks, although immobile in their adult state, settle with the help of free-swimming larvae).

Thermonuclear explosion on the Fangataufa atoll (Canopus tests), 1968 (Photo by Pierre J. - Flickr.com.)

One would expect that the ecosystem recovering from scratch would be the same as before. But in fact, biologists have long been discussing the hypothesis that the formation of an ecosystem is largely a matter of chance, and studies on the "atomic" atoll confirm this - there were no conditions that would rigidly indicate to one or another species where and in what quantity he should be. Whoever was driven here by winds and currents, it fell to him to live here.

True, in an article in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the authors describe one exception: in the supralittoral zone, after the explosion, the mollusks turned out to be the same and in the same quantities as before the explosion. But the supralittoral zone is a rather peculiar place, it is located on the border of the sea and land, it is covered with surf water, with surge winds, strong storm winds and very high tides. Only single species of mollusks can live here, which just returned here.

Life after a nuclear explosion is restored, but the structure of ecosystems becomes different...

In general, the authors draw the following conclusion: if we are talking about the restoration of the ecosystem (of course, provided that the environment has stabilized and the pollution, if it was, disappeared if possible), then you should not expect that animals and plants will return here exactly in accordance with with some fixed plan. Given the ability of man to actively interfere with the environment, this must be kept in mind at all times.

As for the described work, there are several serious questions and objections to it. First, it would be good to assess the biodiversity in general, of all species living on the atoll, and not just shellfish. Second, randomness suggests that they all had the same opportunity to occupy the resulting empty space - which, according to some ecologists, is not entirely true. Let's say different types molluscs release offspring at different times, depending on the season, and here one cannot speak of absolute chance in the settlement of the atoll with larvae. Finally, according to Terry Hughes, a coral reef specialist at James Cook University, Fangataufa Atoll's ecosystem may still be in its infancy, and that perhaps in the future the distribution of species here will be the same as it was before the atomic tests.

Based on materials