So we don’t really do politics here on Karachista –it makes our skin breakout, gives us acid reflux and really bad hair days. But we’ve been hearing the N-word being bandied about on both sides of the border and that seriously gives us the heeby-jeebies.

Ok so things are bad between India and Pakistan right now but to all those idiots talking about nuking each other? You should be doing everything possible to make sure that it isn’t even a possibility. Go see the memorials to Nagasaki or Hiroshima, read about Chernobyl or Fukushima. Remember launching a nuke over the border will have more effects than just the inevitable retaliation. It may cause radioactive fallout in your own country as well as poisoning your water supply. However bad things get, you don’t set fire to your own house. In case you’ve forgotten – or never knew – this is what a nuclear bomb really does.

Effects of a nuclear bomb – #NoNukes

1. First there’s an intense bright flash, followed by a fireball. This burns everything it touches. The fireball is so hot that it rises into the air and it also sucks up the ground under the blast (dirt, dust, pieces of rock, anything that was there) and shatters them into tiny particles.

2. The rising fireball superheats the air; air blasts outward in a shock wave violently knocking over everything for miles. Chance of survival? Zero.

3. The fireball will start a million other fires for miles in all directions, especially in cities. The firestorm could cover tens, hundreds or even thousands of square miles or kilometers – especially in South Asia’s hot, dry climate.

4. When the bomb goes off, it releases a lot of “gamma rays.” The gamma rays can’t go far; they’re soaked up by the area right around the blast. So the earth, the buildings and cars, even the air all become radioactive – meaning the place will be uninhabitable for years. These gamma rays also hit the sucked-up tiny particles, and the particles become radioactive. Basically everything becomes radioactive ie dangerous.

5. As the fireball continues to rise, making that well-known mushroom shape, it carries the radioactive particles high into the air. What goes up must come down – the question is where. The fallout cloud includes particles are so tiny and lightweight that they fall very slowly.

6. Prevailing winds carry the particles away from the center of the nuclear blast, so the fallout cloud affects a much larger area than the explosion does. Yes that means radioactive particles could be blown back to the country that launched the weapon and to other countries in the region and possibly around the world.

7. The smaller particles will rise into the stratosphere and be distributed globally while the larger particles will settle to Earth within about 24 hours as local fallout. Lethal levels of fallout can extend many hundreds of kilometers and miles from the blast area.  Contaminated areas can remain uninhabitable for a long time – areas of the Marshall Islands where the US conducted tests are still very radioactive.

8. If you weren’t close enough to be killed by the blast or the subsequent fire, a good dose of radiation can kill you pretty rapidly…remember that Russian spy who was killed by radiation poisoning? Alexander Litvinenko died a horrible read. A low dose will give you loss of white blood cells, nausea, vomiting, and headache. A higher dose will make your hair fall out and will damage your nerve cells, your digestive tract and your immune system. A high enough dose may give you diarrhea, skin peels or make you bleed uncontrollably and you will die within two weeks.

9. If the immediate radiation doesn’t kill you, there’s the long term effects of radiation exposure. We’re talking cancer, especially leukemia, sterility, and a host of other problems. Ask the people who were exposed to radiation after the Chernobyl disaster. Remember you don’t have to be anywhere near the blast site – wind and rain could carry radioactive particles your way. Oh and if you’re near enough for local fallout, your land, your livestock and everything that you could possibly eat will also be contaminated.

10.Detonating 20 warheads would loft 1 million tons of soot high into the atmosphere, blocking out sunlight and dropping temperatures across the planet. This climate disruption could cause a sharp, worldwide decline in food production. So anyone who isn’t nuked out or puking from radiation sickness faces inflation or food shortages. You may think we’re being alarmist but do a little research of your own – going nuclear just isn’t an option.