The economic impact of a global nuclear holocaust

A nuclear holocaust, or in other words a nuclear apocalypse, is -still- a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes an unprecedented global destruction and radioactive fallout.

   An atomic bomb derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions. The inventor of an atomic bomb is Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), an American theoretical physicist. According to the Atomic heritage, during the Manhattan Project (1941), Oppenheimer was director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb. However, the secrets and the technology for building the atomic bomb soon spread.

   Arms Control Association highlights that the United States conducted its first nuclear test explosion in July 1945 and dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945. Just four years later, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test explosion. The United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), and China (1964) followed.

   The estimated global nuclear warhead inventories are about 13,080 today, with 90% of them belonging to the United States and Russia. The latter has 6,257 nuclear warheads, the United States 5,550, China has 350, France 290, the United Kingdom 225, Pakistan 165, India 156, Israel 90, and North Korea about 50 nuclear warheads. These are the official statements about nuclear inventory worldwide. Though, many countries may have nuclear secrets for their warzones.

   For instance, in September 2007, Israel conducted an airstrike to Syria, on what US officials alleged was the construction site of a nuclear research reactor similar to North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor. We cannot be sure about who has what nuclear weapons, so it impossible to estimate the depth of nuclear knowledge that each country has. But, in any case, casualties from a major nuclear war between the US and Russia would reach billions of innocent people.

   Therefore, if the scenario of a global nuclear holocaust turns true, then most parts of the Earth will be uninhabitable due to the effects of nuclear warfare. Potentially, a nuclear mistake will cause the collapse of our civilization. The extinction of humanity will be under attack. Life on earth could potentially end. Immediate destruction of cities and nations by nuclear blasts will be followed by firestorms, a nuclear winter, and widespread radiation sickness. Also, our massive technology will be lost as well, due to electromagnetic pulses.

   Hence, the answer about the economic impact of a global nuclear holocaust is simple, short, and clear. There will be not enough human activity anymore so that an economic system can exist. In this case, if some people manage to recover from this global nuclear holocaust, they will have to survive thinking as the first human beings on earth.

   Everything will start again from a zero point. Even if a leader thinks that a shelter will be able to provide a safe place to survive, this does not mean that the earth will recover from this. Food will not be the same, materials will change dramatically, and the earth must be discovered again. If an individual is rich today, it is because there are consumers for her or his services and products. If consumers die, who will buy the goods?