'Small' Nuclear War Could Trigger Catastrophic Cooling

  Charles Q. Choi livescience.com Even a relatively small regional nuclear war could trigger global cooling, damage the ozone layer and cause droughts for more than a decade, researchers say. These findings should further spur the elimination of the more than 17,000 nuclear weapons that exist today, scientists added. During the Cold War, a nuclear exchange between superpowers was feared for years. One potential consequence of such a global nuclear war was "nuclear winter," wherein nuclear explosions sparked huge fires whose smoke, dust and ash blotted out the sun, resulting in a "twilight at noon" for weeks. Much of humanity might eventually die from the resulting crop failures and starvation. to read more: livescience.com