Knowledge

If all the nuclear weapons on Earth were detonated, would it be possible to destroy the whole of humanity?

No.

Fun nuclear weapons fact. If you detonated ALL the nuclear bombs EVER made (over 80,000 lifetime, about 12,000 left today), the energy released would not even compare to the energy released by a SINGLE hurricane. Amazing, right?

Google it, it’s true.

There are 12,705 nuclear warheads worldwide as of January 2022. That would be roughly enough to destroy up to 100 largest cities in the world (A city like Moscow takes some 30, 300kT warheads to fully cover). There would still be some survivors, even in the cities that were hit.

There wouldn’t be enough nukes for the small towns and villages.

A relatively small percentage would die directly from the explosions. The total death toll might be 60–90% of the global population, most of whom will die of starvation, within the first year after detonation, due to the collapse of global agriculture and logistics chains.

The remaining 10–40% might restart low-intensity, subsistence farming in regions that support it (Europe, India, China, North America), after decontamination of the land. This would typically involve removing 20–30cm of irradiated top soil, without the use of heavy equipment, which would be a monumental task – but doable.

Regions not listed, where the soil and climate does not naturally support farming without fertiliser, will drop further to 1–5% of the original population, of hunter-gatherers.

Humans, dogs, rats, pigeons and a few other species are incredibly resilient and impossible to exterminate by nuclear weapons. Still, life would be short and nasty for the next few generations, after the detonation.

On the flipside, after a few years of dying off, due to radioactive fallout and nuclear winter – the rest of the ecosystem might actually start a rapid recovery, with the human activity now minimised.

Related Posts

What’s it like inside an aircraft carrier during a heavy storm?

During my time on a carrier, we went through a hurricane not once, but twice. We were in the Atlantic returning to our home port but first, we…

If the Soviets had decided to push the Allies out of Western Europe at the end of WW2, could they have done it?

Stalin asked Marshal Zhukov that very question in 1945. His answer: No. Westerns have a myth about the Red Army being this enormous inexhaustible machine that steamrolled its…

How long can an Ohio-class submarine stay submerged?

The Ohio-class nuclear submarine was designed for extended strategic deterrent patrols. Each submarine is assigned two complete crews, called the Blue crew and the Gold crew, each typically serving…

Why is the F-35 terribly flawed but the F-22 wasn’t?

The F-35 has been clubbing F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, like baby seals in recent exercises. And In Red Flag 17–1 when the F-35 was declared out of weapons, the…

How large can an aircraft carrier be made to accommodate as many aircraft as possible?

HMS Habakukk was planned to be 2000′ long, 300′ wide, and able to carry 200 planes including heavy bombers! While it was theoretically possible to build it, the…

Which US Navy jet was the most difficult or the easiest to land on the Aircraft Carrier?

Most difficult or worst? Almost certainly the Voight F7U Cutlass. 25% of the production run was lost to landing accident. Carrier Captains started ordering them off their ships…