Environmental Collapse in T2k

[Raellus]

I wonder why the 1e creative team decided to go with a megadrought in HW, instead of nuclear-winter, the latter being very much in vogue at the time it was written. Maybe it was precisely because nuclear-winter was so in vogue and they decided to zig instead of zag, to make T2k stand out?

Anyway, a megadrought makes even less sense given the high probability of a global cool-down due to massive clouds of particulates and smoke (caused by even limited nuclear warfare) in the upper atmosphere blocking out a significant amount of sunlight. Although, I suppose that such ash clouds could concentrate in certain areas and not others, leading to extreme variations in regional weather patterns. This might mean that Europe gets darker and colder whilst large parts of the USA get sunnier and hotter. This seems like quite a stretch, though, given how many nuclear strikes occurred on US soil.

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