By: Courtney Carter

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: THEIR EFFECT ON US & OUR WORLD

WHAT ARE NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

By definition: a bomb or missile that uses nuclear energy to cause an explosion

• There are two types of nuclear weapons: the fission bomb & the thermonuclear bomb

• Most nuclear weapons today are two-stage thermonuclear weapons that use both fission & fusion.

• Countries known to have thermonuclear weapons are:

the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France

• Countries known to have fission weapons are:

India, Pakistan, Israel

HOW NUCLEAR WEAPONS WORK

Fission: Fusion:

Like nuclear power stations, fission releases big quantities of energy by splitting large unstable elements like uranium or plutonium.

A fission bomb sets off the fusion bomb, which also triggers another atomic bomb, which makes it a bomb inside a bomb.

HOW NUCLEAR WEAPONS EFFECT US SOCIALLYThe world’s major superpowers, along with the other smaller countries that have nuclear weapons in their possession puts a strain on relations between one or a few countries when problems or war arises between two nuclear-enabled states. (i.e. Cuban Missile Crisis)

Each country that possess nuclear weapons

spent millions of taxpayer/government dollars to create, build, & protect their

respective weapons. This is money that could have been spent on other public services like public education, job creation or healthcare.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS COULD EFFECT OUR HEALTH • The families of those who died from the bombs on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki along with the other citizens who lived are proof that nuclear weapons are very harmful to human health.

• The ones who survived the initial blast from the bomb were subject to the long term effects of radiation.

• A few of the known health conditions that nuclear weapons caused for these survivors:

Nausea, vomiting, & diarrhea

Cataracts

Hair Loss

Blood Cell Loss

Increased risk of cancer, leukemia, & birth defects

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WOULD HAVE DETRIMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS• Richard Turco of UCLA said detonating between 50 and 100 bombs - just

0.03% of the world's arsenal - would throw enough soot into the atmosphere to create climactic anomalies unprecedented in human history.

• This means that by just two countries dropping small numbers of their bombs on each other would have catastrophic effects on our climate, can you imagine if the every country who possesses nuclear weaponry also set off their bombs in response?

• According to research & science these are a few of the environmental effects of a nuclear war were to break out:

Global temperatures would crash

Most of the world would be unable to grow crops for more that 5 years after a conflict

The ozone layer would be depleted by 40% over many inhabited areas and up to 70% at the poles

• According to Alan Robock, Nuclear weapons are the greatest environmental danger to the planet from humans, not global warming or ozone depletion.

PLEASE CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO!!!

What Countries Have Nuclear Weapons?- YouTube video

SO SHOULD WE BE SCARED?• YES. Most definitely.

• The USSR and the United States are actually “modernizing” their nuclear arsenals, which only makes the possibility of nuclear war more likely.

• In January of this year, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board moved the symbolic Doomsday Clock forward to 11:57, where 12:00 signifies the apocalypse. This means they think the world has probability of having a global catastrophe.

HOW YOU’RE INVOLVED• While we as individuals can’t do much to prevent our world from

nuclear destruction, we can be advocates against nuclear weapon use by speak our opinions on the matter and writing our legislatures.

• You can also help yourself by preparing your family and home in case of a nuclear attack. (i.e. first aid kits, stocking up on non-perishable foods, storing water, & coming up with a plan if nuclear war does happen.

WORKS CITED• "Acute Radiation Syndrome." Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Academic. Web. 7

June 2015.

• Alter, Charlotte. "Global Apocalypse Is Just Three Minutes Away." Time. Time, 23 Jan. 2015. Web. 10 June 2015.

• Barash, David. "Should We Still Be Afraid of Nuclear War? - We Have Become Dangerously Habituated to the Threat of Nuclear War. by David Barash - Aeon Ideas." Aeon

Ideas. Aeon Ideas Beta. Web. 7 June 2015.

• Frankel, Max. "Learning from the Missile Crisis." Smithsonian. Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Oct. 2002. Web. 8 June 2015.

• Harris, William, Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. and John Fuller. "How Nuclear Bombs Work" 05 October 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. 09 June 2015. Web. 4 June 2015.

• "How Does a Nuclear Bomb Work ?" Guernseydonkey.com. General Interest, Science, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 4 June 2015.

• "How to Survive a Nuclear Attack." WikiHow. Mediawiki. Web. 9 June 2015.

• Jha, Alok. "Climate Threat from Nuclear Bombs." Theguardian.com. The Guardian, 12 Dec. 2006. Web. 4 June 2015.

• "Nuclear Weapons: How They Work (2010)." Union of Concerned Scientists. Union of Concerned Scientists, 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 4 June 2015.

• Tucker, Jasmine. "Here Are Better Ways To Spend $1 Trillion Than On Nuclear Weapons." Campaign For America's Future. 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 8 June 2015.