Simulation Predicts 548 Million People Would Die In Nuclear War Between Russia & NATO

A Reddit user has compiled information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations (UN), and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other declassified source to create a simulation that foretells how many lives would be lost to a nuclear war between Russia and NATO countries in case the Ukraine conflict were to escalate further.

"The purpose of this simulation is to provide a visualization of the global consequences of a nuclear war between the Russian Federation and state members of NATO," the post says.

iStock

Its creator warns though, that the results have been simplified to a great degree, without taking away from a "realistic" representation of "the outcome of a nuclear war."

How many people would die?

Besides offering just a statistical outtake on the damage of nuclear wars, the simulation essentially concluded that Russia is most likely to start a nuclear war "based on recent geopolitical events."

Russia has a population of 145,934,462 while NATO countries have a combined population of 944,255,670. The simulation highlighted three stages - nuclear war, nuclear fallout, and nuclear winter.

Reuters

According to the simulation, just three hours of nuclear war means 21,000,000 are already dead. In 24 hours, NATO countries would lose 86,151,321 lives while Russia would suffer 91,893,667 deaths with total global casualties at 178,044,988.

uncredited

In the second stage - nuclear fallout, about 186,457,901 would have died across the world with dangerous conditions worldwide for humans. By the end of the third stage called the nuclear winter (10 months after the war), about 548,739,330 people would have lost their lives to the nuclear war (and fallout) between NATO and Russia - with most casualties in Russia, Europe, and North America.

Watch the complete simulation below:

As the simulation's creator aptly put it, the lesson to be learned here from this data is that "no country on Earth will be safe in the event of a nuclear war."

What do you think about nuclear weapons? Do we need them to keep us safe from aggressor countries? Should we decommission all nuclear weapons? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.