Have We Forgotton The Potential Horrors Of What A Nuclear War Followed By a Nuclear Winter Would Be Like?

Science Alert: We've Forgotton The Potential Horrors of What a Nuclear Winter Would Be Like 

Under the shadow of the Cold War, many in the world feared the impending prospect of a nuclear winter. According to a new report, our focus has since drifted from its horrors, leaving us with a general lack of awareness that could be dangerous for the future of humankind. 

It goes without saying that the threat of a nuclear blast is no trivial event. Decades of pop culture have left society with a relatively strong association between global calamity and atomic weapons. 

But the exact details on exactly what we might expect from such an escalating conflict have become hazy in the past few decades. 

The facts themselves are fairly clear. Besides the many millions who would be killed directly from the blasts, climate models predict the debris resulting from nuclear war would block out much of our sunlight for up to a decade. The consequences for survivors would be devastating: a decline in global temperature, followed by widespread crop failure, and then mass starvation. 

In spite of this dark threat, just a small percentage of today's population claim to be well informed about the precise consequences of a nuclear war – and many of those people are relying on outdated information spread amid the political tensions between superpowers in the 1980s.  

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WNU Editor: I am in my sixties, and it was drilled into my head at an early age on what the impact of a nuclear war will look like. It looks like this "education" has been omitted for younger generations. 

The survey is here .... Opinion Poll Survey: Public awareness of ‘nuclear winter’ is too low given current risks (University of Cambridge).