This week, researchers report that an India–Pakistan nuclear war could lead to crops failing in dozens of countries - devastating food supplies for more than one billion people 1. But much smaller nuclear conflicts, which are more likely to occur, could also have devastating effects around the world. They build on long-standing work about a ‘nuclear winter’ - severe global cooling that researchers predict would follow a major nuclear war, such as thousands of bombs flying between the United States and Russia. This grim vision of a possible future comes from the latest studies about how nuclear war could alter world climate. For years, crops wither from California to China. Smoke from the incinerated cities rises high into the atmosphere, wrapping the planet in a blanket of soot that blocks the Sun’s rays. That horrifying scenario is just the beginning. Tens of millions of people die in the blasts. The next day, India sets off its own atomic explosions and within days, the nations begin bombing dozens of military targets and then hundreds of cities. As a show of force against the invading army, Pakistan decides to detonate several small nuclear bombs. When a terrorist attacks a site in India, that country sends tanks rolling across the border with Pakistan. It all starts in 2025, as tensions between India and Pakistan escalate over the contested region of Kashmir. India tests its Agni-5 rocket in 2013, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Rise of nations nuke