What will we eat (if we survive)

The use of today’s most powerful weapons will plunge our planet into a deep nuclear winter. In a worst-case scenario, an exchange of nuclear bombs between the United States and Russia, which has nearly 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, could blow up to 165 million tons of soot into the Earth’s atmosphere and reduce surface temperatures by 9 degrees. Celsius and why Up to 90% reduction in global calorie production.

Scientists have discovered a great alternative food source that could save many lives after a disastrous war: seaweed.

A new study found that within 9 to 14 months after the bombs fell, large amounts of seaweed growing in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. East Coast could be harvested, which could help. Feeding the 1.2 billion people who will live on the planet.

At full capacity, seaweed farms could replace 15% of the food currently consumed by humans, as well as provide 50% of current biofuel production and 10% of animal feed.

More than 2 billion people will be at risk of hunger after a moderate nuclear war between India and Pakistan, and more than 5 billion people will be at risk of hunger after a nuclear war between the USA and Russia. Therefore, there is a need to research alternative foods.
– said study co-author Cheryl Harrison, associate professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University.

The most immediate consequences of nuclear war are sudden or relatively rapid death, at least for those in the affected area, followed by radiation poisoning of the population in surrounding areas. These dire consequences have been known since the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945.

A single bomb, five times less powerful than thermonuclear bombs in existing arsenals, killed an estimated 140,000 people in five months and destroyed or severely damaged more than 60,000 of the city’s nearly 90,000 buildings.

However, the potentially deadliest outcome of even a small-scale nuclear war is its own impact on agriculture. In an apocalyptic scenario, radioactive dust and smoke would block most sunlight. This would cause temperatures to drop, destroying many of the world’s crops, making it impossible to grow new ones, and possibly causing global famine that could kill billions of people.

In this new study, scientists modeled the growth of crops in an environment where temperatures would not drop as quickly (tropical oceans). The specific heat of the ocean and water is generally higher than that of land, so they retain more heat and are harder to heat and cool. So the ocean is a great place for alternative food production, unlike greenhouses on land that need a lot of heat while running short of fuel.

The scientists’ model showed that: Seaweed farms will not only survive, but thrive and expand as surface temperatures drop. This is because colder weather causes surface waters to sink deeper, increasing the circulation of nutrient-rich waters that will rise from the depths and replace them.

The researchers said the use of farmed seaweed would be primarily indirect, as the iodine found in seaweed can be toxic to humans in large amounts. However, if used for animal feed and biofuel production, the remaining arable land will be freed for other crops. This could help humans survive a nuclear winter until the climate begins to improve in decades.

It is worth noting that algae can be beneficial to humanity even if there is no nuclear war. It could be a lifeline after disruptions to global food systems, such as massive asteroid impacts or giant volcanic eruptions. Throughout history, major eruptions have caused famines both regionally and globally.