War is fought with 100 Hiroshima-size weapons (currently available in India-Pakistan arsenals), which have half of 1 percent (0.05%) of the total explosive power of all currently operational and deployed U.S.-Russian nuclear weapons
20 million people die from the direct effects of the weapons, which is equal to nearly half the number of people killed during World War II
Weapons detonated in the largest cities of India and Pakistan create massive firestorms which produce millions of tons of smoke
1 to 5 million tons of smoke quickly rise 50 km above cloud level into the stratosphere
The smoke spreads around the world, forming a stratospheric smoke layer that blocks sunlight from reaching the surface of Earth
Within 10 days following the explosions, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere would become colder than those experienced during the pre-industrial Little Ice Age
These nuclear war-induced effects on temperature would be twice as large as those which followed the largest volcanic eruption in the last 500 years, in 1816, which caused “The Year Without Summer”
This cold weather would also cause a 10% decline in average global rainfall and a large reduction in the Asian summer monsoon.
25-40% of the protective ozone layer would be destroyed at the mid-latitudes, and 50-70% would be destroyed at northern high latitudes. Massive increases of harmful UV light would result, with significantly negative effects on human, animal and plant life.
These changes in global climate would cause significantly shortenedgrowing seasons in the Northern Hemisphere for at least years. It would be too cold to grow wheat in most of Canada.
World grain stocks, which already are at historically low levels, would be completely depleted. Grain exporting nations would likely cease exports in order to meet their own food needs.
Some medical experts predict that ensuing food shortages would causehundreds of millions of already hungry people, who now depend upon food imports, to starve to death during the years following the nuclear conflict.