But How Well Could Man Survive ‘Nuclear Winter?’

The article by Edward Cornish seems reasonable at first. It seems almost inconceivable that we can produce such a horrendous destruction as to even raise the question, would mankind survive a nuclear war. Yet we have produced so many nuclear weapons as to be 6,000 times as destructive as all of the destruction in WW II.

As Mr. Cornish acknowledges, the nuclear winter theory provides a credible scenario to possibly end all human life on earth. That means he thinks it is possible even if unlikely. There is a great deal of uncertainty about how cold it would get and for how long, but it is now recognized that the nuclear winter would not be limited to the Northern Hemisphere but would spill over into the Southern Hemisphere.

Although the effects would be less, even a drop of a few degrees of temperature could bring about severe crop failures. Then Mr. Cornish did not mention the long-term biological effects that would endanger any survivors.

What I find appalling is the reassuring matter-of-fact way Mr. Cornish explains that the human race would probably survive because some opal miners in Australia and research people at the South Pole would probably survive.

I find little comfort in this type of thinking. Mr. Cornish would be dead. I would be dead. All the things that we value and cherish, our loved ones, all of art and history and science would be gone. Where is the sense of moral outrage that we would allow this situation to exist?

Surely rational people can see that continuing this nuclear arms race will lead sooner or later to our destruction. There are things that we can do. We could start off by agreeing to a nuclear testing moratorium, then to a freeze, and work toward significant arms reductions and a world where there is no more war. War has become obsolete, and we have got to find a way to co-exist on this planet.

EDWARD A. DOTY

Torrance