Starting Nuclear War May Be ‘Devastating’ for US Even If No One Retaliates, American Scientist Says

In September 2019, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned of an increasing risk of a nuclear war due to the deterioration of global stability.

In an opinion piece published on The Conversation, a website, Joshua Pearce, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Technological University, cautioned that a possible nuclear war may prove “devastating for the US, even if no one shoots back”.

In this vein, he urged “every nation willing to use its nuclear weaponry” to determine “whether it has the ability to survive the problems of its own making”, including those related to a so-called “nuclear winter”.

As far as the US is concerned, the scientist predicted a severe annual fallout from the scenario of the American military using 1,000 nuclear warheads against an adversary like Russia or China, in a scenario where the adversary is unwilling or unable to retaliate.

He added that “if the US attempts to expand our stockpile as recently proposed and then used 7,000 nuclear weapons, even if everything went perfectly our way, at minimum 5 million Americans would starve”.

Moscow Warns of a Nuclear War Risk

His remarks followed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stating last year that the situation pertaining to strategic stability “keeps growing worse” and that “there is a risk of a nuclear war breaking out, even if the sides have no intention of starting a nuclear conflict”.

Ryabkov also said that Washington appears to be evading working with Moscow on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

The New START was signed between Russia and the US in April 2010, imposing limits on the number of both countries’ nuclear missile launchers, inter-continental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers and deployed warheads. The deal is set to expire in 2021, but there is an option to extend it until 2026.

Sourse: sputniknews.com