The Story of Nuclear Winter

The Future of Life Award honors those whose overlooked actions have steered humanity away from disaster. Read more about the award here: The 2022 Award goes to eight heroes who helped to reduce the risk of nuclear war, by catalyzing, developing, and popularizing the science of nuclear winter. In the event of a nuclear war, smoke and soot, lofted into the stratosphere by nuclear firestorms and spread around the world by jet-streams, would block enough sunlight to create a ‘nuclear winter’, devastating global agriculture. Scientists predict that the resulting famine and civilizational collapse would kill most people on Earth. This video tells the story of this discovery. It’s a story of how the world learnt that nuclear war’s impacts were even worse than we previously thought, but it’s also a story of hope, of scientific discovery, collaboration and outreach bringing about positive political change. After all, it was the bilateral scientific acceptance of nuclear winter which helped persuade both Gorbachev and Reagan to reduce their nuclear arsenals. Decades after that reduction of arsenals, Nuclear Winter has unfortunately faded from public consciousness. But by remembering the work of these pioneering minds, we can better inform future decisions and hold our leaders accountable. For more information on the 2022 Future of Life Award winners, please visit: To hear more exciting stories of heroes who have made the world a much better place, check out our new video about past winners of the Future of Life Award: