It has been said for quite some time now : if we have a third World War – it might just be the end of the World. Of course the reasoning given behind such a thought is the fact that if there is to be yet another World War, then the use of nuclear weapons will be inevitable. And if used to such a scale, then one can only imagine the daunting consequences that will follow.
Unfortunately enough, many have started believing that within their lifetimes, they will see a nuclear weapon in action. While such a sentiment was not followed too long ago, it is now with greater belief. And unfortunately enough, it might just be reasonable to assume that this will in fact be the case.
Frightening as it may be – such a sentiment isn’t just followed by the common man – as a January 2018 World Economic Forum Survey which consisted of 1,000 leaders based in from government, business as well as other industries proceeded on to identify a nuclear war as being the top threat.
And such widespread concern is also quite understandable. Not so long ago, it seemed that a nuclear conflict between the US and North Korea was just on the horizon, while India and Pakistan too seemed on the brink of restarting their decades-long squabble not so long ago. Of course not to forget that both the US and Russia – two countries that are the world’s foremost nuclear powers have seemingly had warheads pointed at one another ever since the earlier days of the cold war.
So what exactly is the risk of a nuclear war? While one might think that the chances are high because we’re always seemingly at the point of a global issue, many experts on the matter have actually suggested that the chances are actually quite small. But at the same time, these experts have also warned that while the chances are small – they aren’t exactly zero : this of course down to the fact that nuclear weapons do exist.
Unfortunately enough, due to the fact that the chances aren’t exactly zero, the damage that may be caused by such weapons is therefore imaginable – one might even suggest that the damage would be incalculable. All it takes is just one strike to conceivably kill hundreds of thousands of people just within minutes and perhaps even millions more over the course of the next few days, weeks and years.
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Even more scary of course is the fact that the first strike could end up triggering a series of events that might lead to widespread famine which of course may be caused by the rapidly cooling climate. Such conditions could potentially end civilization as we know it.
The two countries that have nearly all of the world’s nuclear weapons
There are two reasons why most countries would want nuclear weapons at their disposal : self-defense and global prestige.
Of course not every government could afford such weapons either. Nukes take billions and billions of dollars to build, maintain and launch properly.
As a result of this, today, only nine of the world’s countries possess all the nuclear weapons that exist on Earth – these weapons amounting to roughly 14,500. This number is down quite significantly from the 70,300 weapons peaking all the way back in 1986.
Nonetheless, two countries in the US and Russia actually account for both the rise as well as the fall in the global nuclear stockpile. Both the superpowers possess 93 percent of all the nuclear weapons that are present.
During the cold war, both Russia and the US built up an arsenal in an attempt to protect themselves from the other. Possessing the ability to attack any major city or strategic military position with that of a massive bomb, the thinking went, would make the cost of the war so high that no one would want to fight.
But then the question comes to mind : why has the nuclear weapon inventory fallen to such an extent? Well, to put it simply, first and foremost both Russia as well as the US have signed a slew of treaties from the 1970s onwards in order to reduce as well as cap parts or their nuclear programs.
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Secondly, both the countries have learned to hit targets with extreme precision – negating the need for so many bombs in the first place to obliterate a target.
What would happen if there is a war?
A nuclear strike of any magnitude could end up unleashing a suffering on a scale we haven’t seen since World War II.
Of course it is indeed hard to picture what the effects of a modern-day nuclear attack would look like but an expert on the matter suggested that the roughly 140 kiloton explosive that North Korea tested back in September of 2017 could be responsible for the death of 220,000 people while another 450,000 could end up ensuring injuries.
It is of course important to note here that this is the consequence of detonating one bomb. A full fledged war could have consequences beyond what we can ever imagine.
And of course the nature of a nuclear bomb means that the damage wouldn’t just be limited to the initial attack. Those who survive such an attack would have to succumb to sustained injuries or radiation.
The wind on the other hand would carry the irradiated debris and objects. It will take decades as well as billions and billions of dollars to not only to rebuild after a war, but it would also take even more money to clean out the radiation in its entirety.
Conclusion : time to wake up
Earlier, it was mentioned that the chances of a nuclear war taking place – at least in our lifetime, is slim. But slim doesn’t mean it cannot happen. We need to realize the dangers that pose when talking about a nuclear war and nuclear weapons on their own and need to realize that if there is a full fledged war to take place – it might just be the very last war the mankind witnesses.
