nuclear winter
4
7.5
- noun
- /ˈnjuːklɪər ˈwɪntər/
- NSFW
:
invierno nuclear
- The impact of a global nuclear winter would drastically reduce temperatures, making it nearly impossible for crops to survive.
- nuclear winter scenario
And without sun, we have nuclear winter.
- And without sun, we have nuclear winter.
- You have the nuclear winter that follows for anyone who who survives that initial blast.
- We're waiting for, you know, atomic warfare and nuclear winter.
- It begins with the detection of a launch and it ends in nuclear winter.
Examples
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According to one prominent analyst, the biosphere would be able to withstand even nuclear war followed by nuclear winter.
Academic text (1993) -
Policymakers planned "day after" scenarios based on thoughts of nuclear winter, not nation-building or pacifying disgruntled villagers.
Academic text (2002) -
For five thousand years, our world is robbed of light as a nuclear winter falls.
Fiction book (1998) -
We won't survive the nuclear winter.
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Years of nuclear winter have rendered the surface uninhabitable.
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That said, an interesting consequence of the asteroid hitting Earth is that it created a nuclear winter which blocked out sunlight.
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Millions died in the initial blasts, with untold billions more being claimed by the societal collapse and nuclear winter which followed.
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It was the late Carl Sagan, the 1981 Humanist of the Year, who led the effort to warn the world about the risks of a nuclear winter in the event of even a "small" nuclear war.
Academic text (2000) -
Many scientists warn that a large-scale nuclear conflict could trigger a nuclear winter, leading to catastrophic agricultural failures.
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In the event of a nuclear war, experts fear that subsequent nuclear winter could cause widespread famine and environmental collapse.
How Severe
- NSFW
4
7.5
2
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines transparent lexical meanings: 'nuclear' (relating to atomic weapons/energy) modifying 'winter' (a cold season), so a learner can infer a winter-like period caused by nuclear events. However, the full technical sense — global climatic effects, prolonged darkness from atmospheric dust and the catastrophic scope — requires extra world knowledge and is not fully predictable from the words alone.
Etymology
Nuclear winter was invented by scientists who imagined huge nuclear explosions throwing smoke and dust into the sky and blocking the sun. The picture of the world becoming cold and dark, like a long winter, is why the phrase means 'a severe global cold and darkness' after a big nuclear war.