[ELI5] What is “nuclear winter?” And if we can cause a winter-like reaction in our atmosphere, could it potentially counter global-warming?

Question

[ELI5] What is “nuclear winter?” And if we can cause a winter-like reaction in our atmosphere, could it potentially counter global-warming?

In: Physics

Answer 1

The nuclear winter is the theory that the destruction and fire caused by a full scale nuclear war would put so much smoke and debris into our atmosphere as to potentially block out the sun.

The name refers to the fact that it would be akin to winter time – less sunlight meaning colder temperatures, and also affecting the growth of plants.

Could we artificially trigger this to reduce temperatures? Not without causing so much unwanted damage and secondary effects as to do far more harm than good.