Bruce Fellman's article "Nuclear Winter Comes In From The Cold" (The Scientist, May 1, 1989, page 1) was well done but failed to point out that the scientific issue of "nuclear winter" was actually resolved in 1985 with the publication of Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War (Physical and Atmosphere Effects, Vol. I and Ecological and Agricultural Effects, Vol. II). These books, published by John Wiley & Sons, were the culmination of a three-year study by 300 scientists from more than 30 countries and a wide range of disciplines. The study was conducted under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment of the International Council of the Scientific Unions.
The overall conclusion of this study was that in addition to the severe direct physical effects of a large-scale nuclear war from blast, thermal radiation, and local fallout, "the climatic effects caused by smoke, could be...
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