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After a Nuclear War, life will continue even though humans may not. Temperatures would plunge during a "nuclear winter," leading to severe food shortages for both people and animals. All but the hardiest creatures would be wiped off by radiation.

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After a complete nuclear war, will there still be life on Earth? Yes. Our planet's life is very adaptable. There have been numerous major extinctions in the past, some of which were probably just as severe as a nuclear Armageddon. Over 90% of the terrestrial species perished in some of these incidents. But life always recovered.

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That doesn't mean, however, that we Homo sapiens, much alone our contemporary civilization that depends on technology, will necessarily survive. In fact, it may take millions of years for life to rebound and regain the amount of richness we have today after a mass extinction event as severe as the one we may anticipate following a nuclear war.

The Likelihood of Nuclear Conflict

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Given the possibility that Russia could use tactical nukes to intensify the war against Ukraine, the potential consequences of such a battle have suddenly become less speculative. There are currently more than 13,000 nuclear weapons in use worldwide, therefore a large-scale nuclear conflict involving a significant number of warheads would have numerous disastrous effects. A 1979 study commissioned by the U.S. Senate provided a thorough description of the immediate effects on society and featured a fictional depiction of how one American town, Charlottesville, Virginia, was affected.

But that's only a portion of the story. Starting with a purported "nuclear winter" and radiation sickness, let's analyze the long-term impacts of a nuclear war on all terrestrial living forms. We have a fair concept of what might happen based on recent simulations and information from the Chornobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters.

Nuclear winter

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In a paper published in 2019, Joshua Coupe of Rutgers University and colleagues predicted that approximately 150 million metric tonnes of soot (aerosols of black carbon) would be ejected into the atmosphere as a result of a nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia. This soot would block sunlight and cause a drop in the average global temperature of nearly 10° C for many years. The amount of precipitation would fall, and its distribution would alter significantly. The growing season would be reduced by nearly 90% in mid-latitude regions, and some locations may experience summer snowfall. As a result, many people and animals over much of the world are starving.

Another 2019 article by Owen Toon and colleagues, simulating a nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India in the year 2025, likewise predicted mass hunger and global mortality. Even this little battle led to an up to 5° C reduction in global surface temperatures.

Since it's challenging to take into account all the intricate environmental interactions that might occur after a nuclear war, such simulations are still quite speculative. The only thing we can be certain of is that the suffering the biosphere will endure is beyond our comprehension. Although the soot from nuclear fallout would block more sunlight than an equivalent amount of volcanic ejecta, comparisons to supervolcano eruptions or significant asteroid impacts can help understand some of the implications of nuclear winter.

Radiation

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Data collected after the Fukushima tragedy in 2011 and the Chornobyl accident in 1986, along with our knowledge of some radiation-tolerant animals on Earth (which, regrettably, do not include humans), can provide us a peek of the anticipated radiation impacts of a nuclear war.

In numerous species around Chornobyl, radiation exposure raised mutation rates and significantly damaged genetic material. Birds and mammals both have smaller brains and cataracts. However, a large portion of the indigenous species in the Chornobyl area has quickly recovered. Because they are able to more easily replace destroyed cells or tissue, plants have been found to be more radiation resistant than animals. Radiation causes tumors over time in mammals, but cancer cells can seldom move from one section of a plant to another in plants, hence tumors are rarely lethal.

Notably, the number of plant and animal species is actually higher than it was before the catastrophe in the Chornobyl radiation-affected area due to the lack of human influence. Even some birds have developed radiation resistance. The blood of some animals has been found to contain larger concentrations of antioxidants, which they use to scavenge harmful free radicals created by radiation exposure.

A Scorpion and Microbial Wasteland

Let's not fool ourselves, though. A whole nuclear war is hardly comparable to an unintentional meltdown in a single nuclear power plant. Millions of people, animals, and even plants would perish if such a calamity took place. What types of life might endure such a catastrophe?

Many microorganisms, especially those that live in deserts, can withstand incredibly high radiation levels. These bacteria would appear to have an edge in surviving a nuclear war due to the great stress of being in such a hostile environment, where desiccation and higher amounts of ultraviolet radiation are a continual threat. The same is true of several huge desert creatures, like scorpions.

Generally speaking, it is best to be smaller. The capacity of Deinococcus radiodurans to quickly heal radiation damage makes it arguably the most radiation-resistant bacterium to date. These resilient bacteria can easily withstand radiation doses 1,000 times higher than those lethal to humans. It was discovered in 1956 that, unexpectedly, Deinococcus radiodurans continued to exist after canned food was sterilized using ionic radiation.

Bdelloid rotifers, a particular class of microscopic animal with a wheellike form, have also been discovered to be remarkably radiation resistant. The moss piglets and water bear known as tardigrades have also evolved. Some fish, such as the mummichog and goldfish, are quite resilient to radiation. Cockroaches are said to inherit the Earth since they were found crawling among the debris after the Hiroshima atomic explosion.

We need to take into account a species' lifestyle in addition to radiation protection when attempting to estimate what animals will survive a nuclear war. For instance, tardigrades, in their latent form, could endure almost any radiation fallout. But if they woke up and all their food was gone, that wouldn't be much of a help. Where you live will also affect your chances of survival. Any surface resident would be susceptible, but birds would be especially so. However, creatures that reside underground would have a greater chance of surviving, including one of my favorite species, the naked mole rat (hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder).

In general, rats are far more radiation resistant than people. In fact, the asteroid impact that wiped off the (non-feathered) dinosaurs and many other species also caused our rat-like ancestors to survive. They brought about the mammalian era and were underground creatures that subsisted on animal carcasses. That's the future, right? We can only hope that we have the foresight to avert nuclear war and prevent the loss of Earth to cockroaches and scorpions.

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