Bigger than the bomb

A nuclear war would wipe out millions but the lingering effects on climate would kill billions more through starvation, says a US scientist who has spent decades raising the alarm.

- SARAH LANG

In the 1970s, a British physicist emigrated to New Zealand to escape the potential ripple effects of a nuclear war as the United States and the Soviet Union continued the nuclear-arms race of the Cold War. On five acres on the outskirts of Whanganui, my father, helped by my mother and us four children, created a largely self-sufficient property with its own orchard, vegetable garden, cows for meat, chickens for eggs, septic tank and creek. We had small forests for firewood and, as I later discovered, to separate us from neighbours who Dad believed may come begging (or worse) for food, should there be a nuclear winter. The property was also created to hopefully withstand any similar Armageddon-like event.

As a child, I thought the arms race was a sort of show-off competition – kind of like the Space Race – so I wasn't too worried. I heard my father mention a nuclear winter, but thought it was just that winters might become a little cooler, so we'd need more firewood.

Dad once mentioned a scientist called Robock, a name I remembered because it sounded like “robot”. But I only recently realised who it was. Distinguished professor of climatology in the department of environmental sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Alan Robock has published more than 500 articles about his research on climate change. One area of expertise is climate intervention (also called geoengineering) but his primary focus is the climatic effects of nuclear war.

Earlier this year, Robock visited New Zealand with his wife for a holiday, and to see a scientist friend. While here, he gave a small public lecture hosted by Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington about nuclear war and global famine.

Blunt and obliging, he spoke to the Listener after his lecture to alert New Zealanders to the danger of a nuclear winter.