Epilogue
Epilogue
Nuclear winter did not seem to affect the policy of the Reagan administration. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it even disappeared from talks about strategy. The consequences of nuclear explosions were rarely mentioned, and only superficially. There was no evidence of climatic effects, suicidal action, or the demise of agriculture that were supposed to happen due to nuclear winter. Nuclear winter was also ignored in discussions about the diminished nuclear arms race. However, some nuclear winter scientists provided circumstantial evidence to support their claim that the issue actually had an impact on public policy. For example, they cited the peak in the number of nuclear warheads in the Soviet Union in 1986 and the slow decline of the American stockpile for many years. The overwhelming sense of the scientific community is that the nuclear winter phenomenon is possible.
Keywords: nuclear winter, public policy, nuclear arms race, nuclear warheads, Soviet Union, scientists, nuclear explosions
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