This goes against everything that science has been saying for the last 60 years. The half life of the materials used in nuclear weapons is not 7 hours, it more like 20 years if that short a period of time. It is the effect of radioactive materials in the fallout and not the fallout itself which is the issue. Once this material comes in contact with living material in the doses it would in a full scale nuclear war everything dies. EVERYTHING. This is not theory this is fact. Our early tests on nuclear explosions proved this. the only animal that is relatively resistant to "fallout" is the cochroach but even when subjected to ultra high levels of radiation it died. the other factor to consider is Strontium 90 which is lethal to all life forms. This would cover the ground and be carried in the wind currents and if memoryh serves is the main component of concern in Nuclear Winter.
Nuclear winter is based on models that show the effect of radiation in massive quantities in the atmosphere for extended periods of time.
Your assertion that there are not enough nukes to blow up the world is niave. The issue is not BLOWING up the earth which is what conventional weapons do. The issue is creating a nuclear disaster that becomes and ELE. We are talking about one "bomb' which carries multiple nuclear warheads of 20mg ton or larger. If I remember correctly the Hiroshima Bomb was 2mgton.
All militaries capable of ICBM delivery systems or stategic targeting are not going to hit just any old place they going to put it in the pickle barrel. Strategically placed weapons (I hate the word bomb when talking nukes) would render over 90 per cent of the world unfit for live let alone human habitation. And if you think your home made bomb shelter is going to save you. Go luck with that.
From what I understand, 1 20mgton weapon will incinerate everything within a 10-20 sq mile radius and affect everything within at least a 100 mile radius BEFORE the radiation effectively (in bulk) enters the atmosphere. Once this happens the effects become exponential. Multiply this effect by 1000 and then measure in wind patterns and drift and you start to see the picture.
Even the survivalist maps of the 60-80's showed that over 85% of the US would be unfit for human life and primarily any life. This was based on a limited exchange
Wrong on so many counts I hardly know where to begin.
For starters, the Hiroshima bomb was not 2 megatons... we didn't even have megaton-range weapons then. IIRC Hiroshima was about a 20 kiloton... several orders of magnitude less than your estimate.
Second, fallout does not consist of "the materials used in nuclear weapons", at least not in bulk. It consists of particles picked up from the ground in the fireball of a surface blast and irradiated into a temporary state of radiactivity... not the components of the bomb itself, which are very limited in mass. As I mentioned, most nuclear attacks on anything other than hardened military bunkers would be "air bursts", WHICH DON'T PRODUCE FALLOUT.
MOST fallout consists of particles that decay according to the 7/90 rule... the ones producing the most rads. There are some other particles in SMALL AMOUNTS that would stick around, which I address below.
Third, you blithely talk about 20 megaton weapons as if they were the norm... they are not. Most
strategic nukes are in the 200-300 kiloton range... again, several orders of magnitude lesser in power than what you're talking about. Also, a lot of the nukes referred to in scarism literature are actually
tactical nukes... typically 50kt or less.
Next, yes Strontium 90 would be a long-term problem, but it isn't as you protrayed it "lethal to all lifeforms". The primary concern about Strontium 90 would be small amounts settling into bones and resulting in bone cancer over a long period of time... not instant lethality.
Then, there's the "85% of the USA would be rendered unfit for human life" maps.... again, wrong. What that actually was, was that in a full-on global nuclear war with EVERYTHING being shot off, there was a good chance that 85% of the USA would experience SOME level of fallout. Not necessarily lethal to humans, not necessarily lethal to lesser lifeforms... in particular, people who could take shelter in a basement with some extra improvised shielding could survive in most areas other than a few immediately downwind of the missle silos and bunkers in the midwest.
Your misinformation is typical of people who have a small amount of mostly-misunderstood knowlege but haven't studied the matter in depth.