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Project Force: The biggest danger of nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons have the potential to cause a climate catastrophe that would affect every human on Earth.

The consequences of a nuclear war would extend far beyond the blast itself, killing millions of people across the globe.

The term, “nuclear winter,” was coined in the 1980s as scientists began to realise that the horrors of a nuclear war would not be confined to explosive blasts and radiation.

As climate prediction models become more powerful and sophisticated, scientists have been able to examine more closely what would happen in a nuclear conflict between two antagonists. In the past, most scenarios focused on potentially apocalyptic conflicts between Russia and the United States.

But new models now predict that even a very limited nuclear war would have drastic knock-on effects for global agriculture and dire consequences for life on Earth.

Al Jazeera’s Alex Gatopoulos explains what the consequences would be of a nuclear winter.

This video was produced, edited and animated by Al Jazeera NewsFeed’s Adam Adada.