Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection

Atmospheric soot loadings from nuclear weapon detonation would cause disruptions to the Earth's climate, limiting terrestrial and aquatic food production. Here, we use climate, crop and fishery models to estimate the impacts arising from six scenarios of stratospheric soot injection, predicting the total food calories available in each nation post-war after stored food is consumed. In quantifying impacts away from target areas, we demonstrate that soot injections larger than 5 Tg would lead to mass food shortages, and livestock and aquatic food production would be unable to compensate for reduced crop output, in almost all countries. Adaptation measures such as food waste reduction would have limited impact on…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: ENG-2028541, AGS-2017113, 2017113, 2028541
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• OP
  Open Philanthropy Project
• EC
  European Commission

  Awards: 821010, 776479, 682602
• BF
  Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

  Award: 031B0787B
• NF
  Norges Forskningsråd

  Award: 326896
• GI
  Goddard Institute for Space Studies