Food security

Nuclear conflict anywhere on Earth would cause global crop crisis

A nuclear conflagration between India and Pakistan would devastate global food supplies, a new study claims.

A new study led by a University of Chicago scientist finds that such a conflict would have horrifying consequences well beyond that region of the world.

Researchers combined climate, agriculture and economic models to show that a limited nuclear conflict would produce a decade of global cooling and a severe decline in crop production that would compromise global food security.

"The impact is very stark," first author Jonas Jägermeyr, a postdoctoral researcher in University of Chicago's Department of Computer Science and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a statement.

According to the study, by year four after the nuclear conflict, 132 of 153 countries -- with a total population of 5 billion people -- would experience food shortages above 10 percent.