Fallout: Nuclear Weapons

The earth has experienced some outrages events in its life time. But when the humans began to take over, they developed something so powerful it could wipe life as we know it off the face of the earth. Nuclear weapons by far have been one of the most dangerous things the earth has experienced (Effects of Nuclear Weapons). After a nuclear weapons kisses the ground, not only will the incineration of the terrain occur for miles; but also these radioactive particles will be scattered into the clouds (Effects of Nuclear Weapons). Humans who are exposed to outrages amounts of radioactivity usually will not survive very long after birth or after surviving the blast. As the nuclear warhead scourges the earth, up above the atmosphere becomes super charged with radioactive particles. The beautiful plants we all love and care for will soon enough, just like us, begin to die off. These weapons of mass destruction will affect the way we live so much that know people look at these weapons as not a matter of necessity, but as an ultimate danger for everything that lives on this planet. Just having these weapons in your military arsenal gives you so much power and puts so much fear in to the eyes of your enemy. That now in this modern society you don’t need to win wars, you just need the big guns. That’s how nuclear weaponry has changed society and the way we look at weapons and military techniques, it has greatly affected the way we function during both war and peace times. “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones” (Einstein). These are words from the famous scientists Albert Einstein, one of many who signed a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging him to build the bomb. During the time of World War II, only two nuclear weapons were made to be deployed and be used by the United States in the course of warfare. The first one name by its size “Little Boy” would be the first uranium bomb dropped on human life forms on August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima, a Japanese city. But only three days later after the Japanese people refused to surrender, a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb named also for its size “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan (The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb). A camera man who reported and took pictures of the burning building and bodies said “The scene I saw through the finder was too cruel…there were children screaming ‘It’s hot, it’s hot!” (“Nuclear Effects” 1). An estimated of 200,000 people died from the blast. But as months past the radiation soon finished off any survivors. This was not the first time nuclear weapons have been detonated on earth’s soil. Roughly 2,000 nuclear warheads have been detonated for testing purposes or just for showing off. Thankfully only few nations hold such powerful weapons such as the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, the People 's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Although it is widely believed that Israel also possess nuclear weapons, but it’s never been seen testing them (The Social and Economic Effects of Nuclear War). One day as we know it though, all these weapons will be pointed at one another as Wilkie Collins first said “I begin to believe in only one civilizing influence—the discovery one of these days of a destructive agent so terrible that War shall mean annihilation and men 's fears will force them to keep the peace” (“Nuclear Effects” 2). “War, war never changes” (Pearlman). Though this quote was made up from a fictional video game, the quote itself is very much true. Limited nuclear war is one of the worst of all wars combined. You could not imagine the casualties or destruction of a limited nuclear war. Even if you survived the bombardment of nuclear warheads the intense fear of radioactivity would lead to Nuclear War Survivor Syndrome. The feeling of personal vulnerability, helplessness, guilt, isolation and fear, was seen very much in Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. Studies shown from the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island even showed workers, who survived, were unable to live normal lives because of these effects. Radioactive fallout spreading across the continents would, in a very short time, will cause a very high emotional impact on the denial of the true extent of damage done by nuclear war or nuclear disasters (The Social and Economic Effects of Nuclear War). On a study of Hiroshima survivors, Robert J. Lifton described the psychological effects as “A sudden and absolute shift from normal existence to an overwhelming encounter with death” (Katz). And a witness who reported to the disaster, Father Siemes said, “Among the passers-by, there are many who are uninjured. In a purposeless, insensate manner, distraught by the magnitude of the disaster, most of them rush by and none conceives the thought of organizing help on his own initiative. They are concerned only with the welfare of their own families” (Katz). But the fear of returning or even rebuilding the city was too much for some to bear. Though the effects of nuclear war and nuclear weapons are hard to fix or stop. There is one thing that is much harder to do. Establishing and maintaining a dialogue about nuclear war. If we could establish some way to help monitor and maintain nuclear weapons it would help enable policy makers and citizens to look at our current situation so we can seek to find new ways to change them (Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World). In the 1960s we did just that. By creating a program named MAD or Mutual Assured Destruction. To define, “MAD is when if one side attacks and the other side retaliates and both sides are going to be completely obliterated” (“Nuclear Effects” 2). So in the end this would keep both sides from attacking because it would mean the end for both societies or as Dean Rusk explained it “We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked” (Rusk). But as technology advances, producing weapons that are able to attack and defend your country. Means that one day MAD will not work and one side will be obliterated while the other lives on. This means in other words a Limited nuclear war has gone from being thought of to being potentially survivable. However though, surviving a nuclear attack only depends on the nuclear warhead itself. As time goes by nuclear technology is evolving to were just one warhead will be able to wipe an entire country of the face of the earth. Also depending on where you decide to launch the warhead will affect how much energy it produces. Launching from a submarine would mean the warhead would have to travel through at least a mile of water before entering the atmosphere. The water would form denser media around the bomb, which would absorb more energy limiting its area of effect (Effects of Nuclear Weapons). Nuclear warheads are just like conventional explosives accepted there temperatures reach very high degrees, roughly up to tens of millions of degrees. But also it depends if you’re indoors or out, how far away you are from the bomb, the size of the explosion, which way the wind is blowing, the list just goes on and on. Death is very likely but radiation poisoning is close to certain if you are caught in the wide open. “Even if the entire national health care system was used, the patient-doctor ratio would be between 25 and 50 to 1 and patients per hospital bed between 10 and 20 to 1” (Katz). So it doesn’t matter how big or where the bomb is being launched from its going to hit and hit hard it will. So the bomb has hit it’s destroyed the entire town and half the country what happens now. Well right away the economic system will go down the drain. After the bombs hit “25 to 50% of the affected region 's manufacturing activities would be a serious blow to the national economy” (Katz). Banking system would probably go into bankruptcies. Payments for loans or mortgages and major appliances would take a major shift downhill as individuals evacuated. Local businesses would lose all there hard earn money as they slowly get rob of their goods as people run around in panic. People to would be very effected by a wide market crash has there would be no money for insurance to cover something so catastrophic. In an event like this federal government would be forced to provide has much money as they could to try to reverse this effect from happening. So if the economy goes down so will the production of food. Fallout, the radioactive particles from the blast, would destroy all crops and wild life in the affect area. Areas like the Midwest region and the south would be greatly affected by this, as they are the main crop production of the United States (The Social and Economic Effects of Nuclear War). “They produce 40 to 80% of the U.S. grains, such as wheat, rye, corn, and soybeans, and contain 40% of the cattle and 60% of the nation 's hogs” (Katz). With no fallout protection, means these cows will be saying there lasts moos as they slowly die away. But not only will the fallout kill the livestock and crops you can’t forget about the ones who manage all that, the Farmers. All that milk inside that cow as to come out somehow and with the farmer’s dead or injured there would be no skilled manpower left over to renew its productivity. Even if they do survive a few hundred farmers wouldn’t be able to provide an entire country with enough food to survive. With the fallout falling to the ground the land where all the crops are produced wouldn’t be able to be re-planted with fresh new crops for thousands of years (Nuclear Weapon Effects on the Environment). If we did survive however the only way to keep the food production up and the economy out of the drain, we would have to rely on are allies to supply us with fresh food and funds. So the bombs have stopped dropping both sides suffer major casualties and destruction. No one has a clue what to do. Nuclear weapon simulations or videos and lectures of what to do have not began to prepare anyone for this moment. Babies cry as their mother arms are scorched to their bodies where they’ll never let go. Buildings tumble all around you. Cries echo through your head as the dust slowly falls down. This is a nuclear bomb; it’s not a friend or an alley, it’s the devils cherry bomb. The threat of nuclear war is not over Nagasaki and Hiroshima was just the beginning. The historical events that happen then will happen again. History repeats it’s self it may take time to get around the circle but it will come around and when it does the only thing we can rely on are not our bigger warheads but the events that we created. This is how nuclear weaponry has changed society and the way we look at weapons and military techniques.

Work Cited
"After Effects - The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb." The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.

BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

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"Effects of Nuclear Weapons." Effect of Nuclear Weapons. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.

Katz, Arthur M., and Sima R. Osdoby. "The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War." The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War. N.p., 21 Apr. 1982. Print. 17 Feb. 2013.

"Key Issues: Ethics: Issues: Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: The Need For A New Agenda." Key Issues: Ethics: Issues: Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: The Need For A New Agenda. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.

"Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: Issues: Effects: Environment." Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: Issues: Effects: Environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.

"The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War." The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War. N.p., n.d. Print. 20 Feb. 2013.

Cited: "After Effects - The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb." The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. "Cold War: Cuban Missile Crisis to Detente Quotes." Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. "Effects of Nuclear Weapons." Effect of Nuclear Weapons. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. Katz, Arthur M., and Sima R. Osdoby. "The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War." The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War. N.p., 21 Apr. 1982. Print. 17 Feb. 2013. "Key Issues: Ethics: Issues: Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: The Need For A New Agenda." Key Issues: Ethics: Issues: Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: The Need For A New Agenda. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. "Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: Issues: Effects: Environment." Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: Issues: Effects: Environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. "The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War." The Social and Economic Effects Of Nuclear War. N.p., n.d. Print. 20 Feb. 2013.