Regional nuclear war will cause catastrophic global consequences

Two scientific studies modelling the effects of nuclear war released in the past few weeks have revealed some terrifying figures: 

• 5 million deaths in a matter of hours, if nuclear conflict breaks out between the United States and Russia,
• 125 million deaths in case of a week-long conflict between India and Pakistan using 100 kiloton nuclear warheads,  
• A 30% reduction in surface sunlight due to the 36 teragrams of black carbon released into the atmosphere after the India-Pakistan conflict,
• Two billion people at risk of famine.

The two studies, Princeton's Science and Global Security programme "Plan A" and Science Advances'  “Rapidly expanding nuclear arsenals in Pakistan and India portend regional and global catastrophe”, show that there is no such thing as a ‘contained’ nuclear conflict.

These are not farfetched scenarios. This new research comes out as tensions are increasing between India and Pakistan, and four of the nine nuclear-armed states have tested nuclear missiles in just the past two weeks. You can read more about this new research here. 

The science is clear: we need to eliminate nuclear weapons, before they are used again. 

And ICAN is creating the pathway to a world free of nuclear weapons. Thanks to campaigners in more than 100 countries, we are on our way. 

• 79 countries have signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to date. 
• 32 states - representing over 660 million people - have also ratified the treaty. This means we’ve nearly reached two-thirds of the way to the 50 ratifications needed for the treaty to enter into force.
• Cities like Los Angeles, Sydney, Paris, Manchester, Berlin, Oslo, Washington DC, Edinburgh, Zurich, Tokyo, Toronto and many more are supporting the Treaty and urges their governments to join it. 
• Over 1,300 parliamentarians around the world have pledged to supporting the Treaty and work for their government to join it.