RDN's Lucifer (nerthos)'s status on Monday, 02-Mar-20 16:43:17 UTC
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@thismightbeauser At the scale that'd be required? yes. Chernobyl was just radiation leakage followed by human abandonment of the region. Blasting India and China with enough firepower to cease human activity would also glass every living creature, animal or vegetal, within the region and destroy the soil. Most of the upper soil layer is organic matter and full of bacteria, superheating it would make it barren. Maybe in a few thousand years new ecosystems would form, but for the first few decades it'd be an ashen desert. Also there'd be worldwide impact from the dust and debris causing a nuclear winter.
You could aim exclusively for the urban and industrial centers to only eliminate polluting hotspots, but that'd mean retaliation, and climate damage is a much better option than a nuclear hot war.
