This video was made possible by WIX. If you are ready to create a website, head
over to wix.com/go/infographics to try out one of their premium plans right now. The earth goes through periodic cooling periods
known as Ice Ages, with the last Ice Age ending a few tens of thousands of years ago. Today we are resting comfortably in the middle
of a mild climate period, which means moderate winters in most places around the world and
year-long sunshine in California. But today we're also capable of changing the
environment artificially, and are already doing so via uncontrolled release of greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere which are warming the planet. But with thousands of nuclear weapons around
the world primed to detonate, that warming trend could very quickly reverse and send
us straight into a man-made ice age. Hello and welcome to another episode of The
Infographics Show- today we're asking: how can we survive a nuclear winter? The legendary astrophysicist Carl Sagan co
authored a paper in the 1980s called Climate and Smoke: An Appraisal of Nuclear Winter. In this earth-shattering essay, Sagan and
his partner, James B. Pollack, studied the physical effects a nuclear war would have
on our planet, and discovered that not only would such a war devastate nations, but it
could potentially disrupt the global climate. By vaporizing debris and filling the atmosphere
with ash, soot and aerosols, a nuclear war would result in global dust clouds that would
block the sun's rays for years, preventing the sun's energy from reaching the surface
of the planet. This would trigger a cascade cooling effect
which would plummet global temperatures by as much as 22 degrees Celsius- turning sunny
California into something more akin to blustery Seattle. The world would enter an artificial ice age. Though recent studies have shown that Sagan
and Pollack's original estimates may have been a bit overzealous, our environment is
incredibly fragile and even a ten degree drop in temperature would have dramatic repercussions. Not only would lower temperatures severely
shorten growing seasons for crops, but all of that blocked sunlight would send weather
and ocean current patterns that help keep the world mild today into disarray. The North Atlantic Drift is an ocean current
that brings warm water heated by the sun in the equator into northern Europe, which in
turn is why Europe is so far north yet enjoys mild weather and warm summers. With a decline in sunshine this current will
completely shut down, and without warm water being circulated around Europe and into the
Mediterranean, Europe would begin to see weather closer to what is common in Canada today. Spain and France's famous summertime beach
destinations would be a thing of the past, and in fact pretty much the entire Mediterranean
would be far too chilly to go for a swim in. But it wouldn't be just sunny beaches that
are a casualty of a nuclear winter- the North Atlantic Drift also helps bring favorable
weather for growing crops to Europe, and without it Europe would experience a catastrophic
crop collapse during what little growing season may be left due to all the dust in the atmosphere. The east coast of the US is also dependent
on ocean currents for its mild weather, and a global cooling that reached the equator
would shut down the Gulf Stream along the US's shores. Originating in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf
Stream circulates warm water up along the east coast of the US and into southern Canada,
helping bring mild temperatures to the area during spring and summer. Chilly temperatures would be hard enough to
deal with, but all of that blocked sunlight would then also shorten growing seasons for
crops. With much reduced sunlight, humanity would
be unable to grow enough crops to feed everyone alive today, and mass starvation would ensue. If current stockpiles of non-perishable goods
could be evenly and fairly distributed- a doubtful circumstance in a post-apocalyptic
world- it's possible that the majority of the population could survive a short-term
nuclear winter. The length and severity of a nuclear winter
would ultimately depend on the amount of weapons exchanged between combatants, but even a small,
regional exchange of just a few hundred low-yield weapons is estimated to plunge the earth into
a ten year nuclear winter. Even with today's large stockpiles of non-perishable
goods, there's simply no way the majority of the population could survive a decade of
famine. Those that do survive however would face crippling
vitamin and mineral deficiencies, leading to disease and illness which would further
decimate humanity's plunging population. In the midst of a nuclear winter you'd probably
be delighted to see a few shafts of sunlight through clouds full of choking dust- but beware,
that sunlight could be lethal. That's because a nuclear war would destroy
the ozone layer, meaning there would be very little protection from the sun's harmful UV
rays. Unless you slather up in the most powerful
sunscreen you can find, basking in the sun for too long will result in severe sunburns
and cancers. Your eyes would be especially sensitive to
that intense UV radiation, and it would be vital to wear goggles or sunglasses with UV
filters in order to keep yourself from going blind. Because UV rays can damage your eye without
you even feeling it, your vision could become severely impaired without you realizing what
was happening until it was too late. A nuclear winter would clearly be a nightmare
scenario, but it might be survivable- after all your ancestors already did. That's right, you are the descendant of a
very small group of humans who survived an ancient nuclear winter. 75,000 years ago a supervolcano in modern-day
Lake Toba, Sumatra, erupted with a fury equivalent to thousands of nuclear bombs, and was 100
times greater than the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora which resulted in 1816's “year without
a summer”. Injecting six billion tons of sulphur dioxide
into the atmosphere, the eruption dropped global temperatures by 3-5 degrees Celsius
for three years, and further cooling lasting decades. Though scientists differ on the severity of
the cooling, the Toba supereruption is widely credited with creating a genetic bottleneck
in human evolution, during which the human population dropped suddenly to a surviving
population of only about 3,000 to 10,000 individuals. So though a nuclear winter sounds bad, know
that you are already genetically predisposed to survive one! But how exactly can you help your odds of
survival? First you'll want to tackle your greatest
threat: the cold. Insulating your home will be critical to keeping
warm, and if you don't know anything about insulation or construction, now is a good
time to learn at least how to use spray foam insulation materials. Fuel supplies will run critically low very
quickly, and even trees may become scarce if there's not enough sunlight for them to
grow- you're going to want to keep out as much cold as possible, while keeping in as
much heat as you can at all times. Secondly you'll want to secure a fresh water
drinking supply. A nuclear winter may paradoxically not necessarily
result in snow, as disrupted weather patterns and a lack of evaporation, and thus precipitation,
may turn the world into a frozen desert. Even if there is snow where you are though,
it is likely to be highly contaminated with radioactive or other particles from the trillions
of tons of debris ejected into the atmosphere by the nuclear bombs. Emergency water filters will be critical for
your health, as well as water purification tablets and possibly iodine pills for radiation
poisoning. It goes without saying that intense radiation
will also be a hazard, but you are in fact not very likely to be irradiated in a nuclear
winter as long as you stay out of ground zero blast zones. That's because a nuclear weapon is designed
to air burst- or explode several hundred to a few thousand meters above its target. This is because if the bomb were to explode
on the ground, the blast wave would be mitigated by terrain and buildings, severely limiting
the explosive potential of a nuclear bomb. High up in the air though a blast wave can
spread for several miles without being dampened by hilly terrain or dense clusters of buildings. An airburst detonation will also ensure that
the majority of the radiation from an explosion will actually be projected upwards into space,
while a ground burst detonation will irradiate millions of tons of soil which will be carried
by the wind. So stay out of large craters and you shouldn't
be turning into a Fallout-style Ghoul anytime soon. Your third concern will be to secure a food
supply. This may be trickier than finding water or
keeping warm as even perishable goods will quickly become scarce, and with most nuclear
weapons aimed at major manufacturing and distribution centers it's unlikely you'll find much that
will be safe to scavenge without irradiating yourself. Hunting and fishing may seem a viable alternative,
but the world operates on a complex food web with organisms feeding on each other, and
at the very bottom of that food web sits the sun. It doesn't matter if you're a polar bear or
an antarctic leopard seal, the food you eat inevitably eats food that in turns eats something
that grows thanks to the sun. Polar bears for instance hunt seals, who in
turn hunt small fish, who in turn feed on krill or plankton which depend on the sun. Global food chains will collapse inevitably,
but with a severely diminished population you just might be able to eke out enough hunting
and fishing to survive. If not, well, there's always billions of freshly
barbequed human bodies laying around..... A nuclear winter would decimate civilization,
and possibly drive humanity to the brink of extinction- but this isn't a threat we haven't
faced before. As the Toba super volcano showed us, we as
a species have what it takes to survive and thrive in the face of any disaster, and with
these catastrophes acting as genetic bottlenecks, our children will be even more capable of
surviving whatever the future throws at them. Nuclear winters can be survivable, but having
a terrible website for your business definitely isn’t! Luckily, Wix has your back with over 500 fully
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and stunning site that’s perfect for you! How would you survive a nuclear winter? What would be your action plan? Let us know in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
what to if there is a nuclear explosion. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
