Applied Physics Seminar: Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering The Consequences of Nuclear War

With the end of the Cold War, fear of nuclear war has receded from the consciousness of much of society. With the Trump administration’s foreign policy (withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal, saber-rattling and then negotiations with North Korea, the attack of post-WWII international organizations and alliances, and the recent withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Force agreement with Russia) the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the Doomsday Clock ahead to just 2 minutes to midnight (the closest to catastrophe the clock has been since 1953 when the USSR first detonated a hydrogen bomb). This seminar describes the climate and space weather consequences of nuclear war to remind us of the apocryphal fate of civilization that nuclear weapons can unleash.