How would a nuclear war between Russia and the US affect you personally?

What would happen if a nuclear war were to be sparked between Russia and the United States today? Who would survive?

In our most scientifically realistic simulation to date, we show what a nuclear war between Russia and the United States might look like today. It is based on detailed modeling of nuclear targets, missile trajectories, and the effects of blasts, EMPs, and smoke on the climate and food resources.

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Copyright 2023 Future of Life Institute, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0
international license.

- BIBLIOGRAPHY -
Here are the resources used in the video. These papers and data sources present the most cutting-edge science we have on nuclear war and its effects:

Nuclear arsenal data:
Hans Kristensen (Federation of American Scientists); The video shows 3,641 of 11,133 US and Russian warheads used, and none from the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, China, Israel or North Korea.

Nuclear target model:
Prof. Sharon Weiner (American University) & Dr. Moritz Kütt (IFSH Hamburg)

Ballistic missile trajectories calculations:
Prof. Anthony Aguirre (UCSC) & Prof. Tegmark (MIT); In reality, MIRVs of course separate only long after launch.

Electromagnetic pulse modeling:
U.S. Army unclassified report AD-A178230 (1994)

Blast modeling:
Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan: "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons", published by U.S. Dept. of Defense & Dept. of Energy; Although the video mainly shows ground bursts to simplify visualization, most urban strikes are likely to instead be airbursts to destroy a greater area.

Atmospheric modeling of global smoke spread and lofting:
Dr. Charles G. Bardeen (National Center for Atmospheric Research) assuming 150 megatons of black carbon smoke

Smoke modeling methodology:
Joshua Coupe, Charles G. Bardeen, Alan Robock & Owen B. Toon 2019, J. of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 8522-8543
Owen B. Toon, Charles G. Bardeen, Alan Robock, Lili Zia, Hans Kristensen, Matthew McKinzie, R. Peterson, Cheryl S. Harrison, Nicole.Lovenduski & Richard P. Turco 2019, Science Advances 5: eaay5478

Nuclear winter temperature modeling:.
Alan Robock, Luke Oman & Georgiy L. Stenchikov 2007, J. Of Geophysical Research 112, D13107

Famine modeling:

[AshtonGleckman]

*"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind"-* John F. Kennedy

[anonydunfgoog]

Scary thing is how this scenario has moved from "never going to happen, no one would be that crazy" to "maybe next week" in the past few years.

[davidowusu]

The fact that these weapons even exist says a lot about humanity.

[corinnewebb]

As a species we've completely lost our way. We don't appreciate the beauty of the planet we live on or the sanctity of life. We are on borrowed time unless we wake up. ☮️🕊️

[richard]

“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.”
- Carl Sagan

[welcomeparadise]

“It has no winners, merely losers” this hit hard for humanity

[szfpa]

The scenario leading up to this, I would imagine, involves at least one side having literally nothing left to lose

[zchjzef]

Is this the reason that rich people making bunkers ? Like zuckerberg making a bunker in Hawaï of 100 mil right now

[stevenjones]

It's not war, it's absolute annihilation.

[VoxBox]

I shared this video and now my friends WILL NOT start a nuclear war!

[Wetop_ball]

Why won’t aliens visit us?

*average human disagreement:*

[ricknoah]

I'm 75. Seen about every doc and read every print article about nuclear war, since the 60's. I'm also a veteran of the "duck and cover" scenario in school. We were freaking terrified. Then there was watching our parents being scared... watching Khrushchev go nuts at the UN. We were in Germany at that time and were getting prepped to evacuate back to the USA. My sister and I were a complete mess. We weren't even excited about missing school.
And all that stress, to this day, has an impact on me emotionally.
We *really* have to keep crazy people out of the White House and military. The responsibility involves every living creature on earth.

[jmack]

“I know not what weapons will be used in WW3, but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones” Albert Einstein

[johncoffman]

one thing he missed is that a couple years ago a group of scientists estimated that dust would also hang in the upper atmosphere and the lasck of sunlight will kill most plantlife and with no roots to hold the soil it will wash iaway in continuous rain. And how about radioactive dust when it settles? Will the lucky survivors be ready for leukemia two years down the track?

[fqkggkg]

Nothing will Stop Mankind from self Destruction

[ellenrichardson]

I grew up in the late 40s and 50s. During the period of Cold War up to an including 1962 missile crisis in Cuba I was never really worried that they would be a nuclear war. I had more faith in the leaders of America and the Soviet Union who knew what suffering was in a war
I'm sad to say that I am worried about nuclear war today as I have no faith in the people running my country

[swaminathanbalakrishnan]

This is one of those things that seem to be from a horror movie, but are made spine-chilling by the fact that it is all 100% true.

[angel]

no one ever mentions the bomb we dropped on Nagasaki.

[puddytat]

It takes hundreds of years to build, sweat and tears, women struggle so hard to give birth, child struggles to grow up, survive school, learn to be smart and change the world for a better place and then it takes some crazy to blow it all up in a few hours. 😢😢😢

[Kdot]

There’s a movie called ‘Threads’ that plays out a nuclear war scenario and it’s one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever watched, nuclear war is absolutely horrific and this movie portrays it amazingly