India-Pakistan nuclear war would cause famine to wipe out civilisation
Study says an atomic conflict between India and Pakistan would cause global famine
A nuclear war between India and Pakistan would set off a global famine that could kill two billion people and effectively end human civilisation, a new study has found.
Even if limited in scope, a conflict with nuclear weapons would wreak havoc in the atmosphere and devastate crop yields, with the effects multiplied as global food markets went into turmoil, the report said.
The Nobel Peace Prize- winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Physicians for Social Responsibility released an initial study in April last year that predicted a nuclear famine could kill more than a billion people.
In a second edition, the groups said they widely underestimated the impact in China, which they calculated would face severe food insecurity.
"A billion people dead in the developing world is obviously a catastrophe unparalleled in human history. But then if you add to that the possibility of another 1.3 billion people in China being at risk, we are entering something that is clearly the end of civilisation," said Ira Helfand, the report's author.
Helfand said that the study looked at India and Pakistan due to the long-standing tensions between the nuclear-armed states, which have fought three full-fledged wars since independence and partition in 1947.