Nuclear winter: The evidence and the risks

Book by Greene, Owen, Percival, Ian, Ridge, Irene

Global concern over nuclear extinction, centered on the holocaust itself, now has turned to the more terrifying consequences of a post-war nuclear winter: ``the long-term effectsdestruction of the environment, spread of epidemic diseases, contamination by radioactivity, and . . . collapse of agriculturethat would spread famine and death to every country.'' Nuclear Winter , the latest in a series of studies by a number of different groupsto wit, The Cold and the Dark , by Paul Ehrlich and others ( LJ 9/1/84)is more clinical, analytical, systematic, and detailed. While fairly technical, it is organized also for the informed lay reader. Two physicists and a biologist analyze the effects on the climate, plants, animals, and living systems; the human costs; the policy implications. Chilling reading indeed, but an excellent overview of what faces us if nations race, or stumble, into the nuclear abyss. Clifton E. Wilson, Political Science Dept., Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.