War between India and Pakistan, the two smallest nuclear powers, could destroy civilisation, warned a physicist. Brian Toon, a Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, explained his theory at a talk in February last year. Speaking at a Tedx meeting, Professor Toon claimed: “War between India and Pakistan, two of the smallest nuclear powers, with only a few hundred weapons the size of the Hiroshima bomb. We might die as unintended consequences that the Indian and Pakistani generals never even gave us a thought about. My colleagues Luke Oman and Alman Roebuck calculated the spread of smoke after a war between India and Pakistan.
“It only takes about two weeks for the smoke to cover the entire earth, and it would rise to altitudes between 20 and 50 miles above the surface, at those altitudes it never rains. The smoke would stay there for years.
“This farmer may be in Europe or in the United States, but many thousands of miles from Pakistan and India, is looking at the smoky sky above him, and down at the crops that have died in his field from lack of light and cold temperatures.”
The Fellow at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder continued: “It is estimated that in a war between India and Pakistan, that we would lose 10 to 40 percent of the yields of corn, what and rice for years afterwards because of the bad weather.
“The entire world only has enough food to feed the population for 60 days unless agriculture produces more food. Ira Helfand, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, has estimated that one to two billion people would die after a war between India and Pakistan, of starvation.
“After a full scale nuclear war, temperatures would plunge below ice age conditions. We would be in a nuclear winter, no crops would grow.
“It is estimated that 90 percent of the population of the planet would starve to death, and civilisation would be destroyed, and no one would be safe.
“Not those in countries with no nuclear weapons, not those in countries that did not participate in the war, and not those on the other side of the planet from where those explosions occurred, no one would be safe.”
Pakistan has shot down two Indian warplanes that had crossed into its side of the Kashmir airspace, the Pakistan armed forces has confirmed.
It came after Pakistani jets entered into the Bimber Hali-Noushera sector at the Line of Control but were forced to turn back following a confrontation with Indian jets.
The three Pakistani warplanes were reportedly crossing the border in retaliation to an alleged Indian bombing raid yesterday.
On February 26 Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a war in 1971.
A Pakistan military spokesman has reportedly said police have captured two Indian pilots, and that the region does not want to escalate the crisis with India by taking the region to war.
Major General Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistan armed forces said: “PAF shot down two Indian aircrafts inside Pakistani airspace.”
In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it had hit a “non-military” target inside Indian-controlled Kashmir, but that it had avoided human loss and collateral damage.
It added: “If India is striking at so called terrorist backers without a shred of evidence, we also retain reciprocal rights to retaliate against elements that enjoy Indian patronage while carrying out acts of terror in Pakistan.”
Meanwhile police officials in Indian-occupied Kashmir said that two Indian pilots and a civilian had died after an Indian air force plane crashed in Kashmir, but did not confirm if the plane had been shot down by Pakistani forces.
The Taliban have revealed their “deep sympathy with the government of Pakistan”. It also stated that the tensions between the two states was “not good” for the Afghan peace process.
Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said: “The continuation of such conflict will affect the Afghanistan peace process.”
It added: “India should not carry any further violence in Pakistan because its continuation will affect regional security also the continuation of such conflict will cost a lot to India.”