Round of Research #2 (Impacts)

For my second round of research I focused on the impacts of the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb is known to be a very deadly to anything that gets in its way. In this round I will be looking at how the atomic bomb affects wildlife, humans, and the globe. This is a very interesting topic because there is limited information on the impacts of an atomic bomb because it has only been used 2 times before.

The atomic bomb has devastating effects on wildlife. When an atomic bomb strikes the ground and detonates, it causes a large amount of debris to fall onto the earth covering almost everything (1). This means that vegetation is not able to grow. A atomic bomb also causes something called a “nuclear winter” (1). This means that the ash and debris from the explosion blocks out the sun (1). Life obviously needs the sun to grow, so it would prevent wildlife from getting the necessary sunlight. When a bomb hits the earth, the radiation makes the sun more powerful afterward (2). This would mean that it would heat up which would be very harmful to anything natural trying to live there. An atomic bomb is not very good for anything and especially harmful to something trying to live in the blast area.

Humans can also be heavily affected by an atomic blast. The most common types of injuries (if you don’t die instantly) are scrapes, burns, radiation poisoning, and other harmful injuries (1). Another injury that one can get is mutations (1). This happens when ionizing radiation causes damage in male and female reproductive germ cells (3). This means that the cells are not able to reproduce correctly and therefore may cause cancer or other bodily issues. The mutations would be called tumors. A tumor is when cells grow and divide more often than they should (4). This is exactly what happens when your body is exposed to radiation. The atomic bomb is devastating to any human.

The globe can also be affected by an atomic bomb. If there was a nuclear war, the ash would wrap around the earth essentially blocking out all the sunlight (nuclear winter) (5). This would cause a world wide famine and cause the cost of everything to go up (5). People would be starving and dying because of the lack of food (5). After the blast, the global cooling would cause the ocean to not be able to take in carbon, making the PH levels go way up (5). This would cause the death of many sea creatures and the death of corral reefs (5). While there are many possibilities of what could happen, there is not enough evidence to prove for sure. Of course the hope is to never know for sure what happens to the earth, but these are all possibilities.

The prospect of an atomic bomb being detonated is scary. The impacts would change the earth in ways we can’t even comprehend. The importance of making people aware of these possible impacts is very important. Everything we know and love would be affected. Nature, people, and the earth itself are all vulnerable to an atomic bomb. This is crazy considering that all it takes is some neutrons and an isotope to cause this insane reaction. Hopefully this was informative and helps to shine some light on the scary impacts of an atomic bomb.

1. https://education.seattlepi.com/ocean-dead-zones-effects-marine-pollution-4760.html
2. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sch&AN=10261758&site=ehost-live
3. https://www.rerf.or.jp/en/programs/roadmap_e/health_effects-en/geneefx-en/#:~:text=When%20ionizing%20radiation%20causes%20DNA,difficult%2C%20especially%20at%20low%20doses.
4. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/tumor
5. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00794-y