A World Beyond Healing; The Prologue and Aftermath of Nuclear War

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. 22 cm, 190, [2] pages. Index. Ex-library with usual markings. DJ in plastic sleeve pasted to boards. Pencil erasure residue on fep. Nicholas Wade (born 17 May 1942) was formerly a staff writer for the Science Times section of The New York Times. He is also an author, who most recently has written the controversial book A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History (2014). Wade has been a science writer and editor for the journals Nature, from 1967 to 1971, and Science, from 1972 to 1982. He joined The New York Times in 1982 and retired in 2012, but he freelances occasionally. He had been an editorial writer covering science, environment and defence, and then an editor of the science section. The physical effects of nuclear weapons, the likely casualties from a major exchange, and the prospects of the survivors. Derived from a Kirkus review: Despite the subtitle. Wade goes far beyond medical matters in this roundup of current knowledge and theory concerning the consequences of a nuclear war. He includes the then latest thinking on the impact of such a war on human social organization, on the US and world economic structure and on the entire environment of our planet. He traces the development of nuclear strategy in the US and Soviet Union. A New York Times science writer, Wade concedes that the ""nuclear deterrent"" has prevented a ""conventional"" war between the two superpowers. He addresses the ""nuclear winter"" theory as well as the possible total destruction of the ozone shield from nitrogen oxides released by nuclear blasts and resulting ""superfires,"" plus disruption of entire electrical systems by electromagnetic pulses produced by nuclear blasts. Even a temporary nuclear winter (caused primarily from the soot of firestorms) could wipe out much of the world's plant life. The failure of a single year's harvest could produce world starvation on an unprecedented scale. The loss of the ozone shield would expose the planet to potentially lethal doses of ultraviolet radial ion, thus possibly destroying all land life and much marine life. Electrical networks are the central nervous systems of industrial nations, without which they are virtually paralyzed. The medical problems following a nuclear exchange are horrifying enough. Some theorists posit up to 165 million American dead within 30 days of an all-out war. Estimates on a ""limited"" attack (missile silos and control centers, bomber bases and missile submarine ports) might produce from one million to 20 million dead. The surviving doctors and hospitals, needless to say, would be overwhelmed by the wounded. This book makes for grim reading, made even more terrifying by the knowledge that the analysts and computers that spew out the doomsday scenarios are really dealing with huge unknowns. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs are mere firecrackers compared to the 10,000 that can be delivered by the strategic missile arsenals of the USSR and US. In compiling this information and presenting it dispassionately, however, Wade serves up a necessary reminder that we can destroy ourselves and much of our planet if we are unable to control the nuclear weapons at our disposal.