Finally this speaker finished his speech as well, the lights in front of him went out.

– Now let's hear an optimistic view of the problem. You have the floor," Yarovitovich pointed to a colleague sitting on the left, third in the row.

The area on the table in front of him turned on and a text appeared on it. Without a greeting, the speaker began his report:

– By the mid-1970s, the accumulation of huge stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in the USA and the USSR and the threat of mutual annihilation gave rise to many phobias among ordinary people. Thus, among the probable consequences of a global nuclear war between the superpowers as a result of numerous nuclear explosions were: the possibility of splitting the Earth's crust, changes in the planet's orbit and tilt axis, thermonuclear detonation as a result of underwater nuclear explosions of "heavy water" accumulated in the depths of the world's oceans. Mankind has never had enough nuclear warheads for this. People tend to exaggerate their own power, importance and, as a consequence, their ability to control large energies. The amount of solar radiation absorbed by the Earth in one day alone is many times greater than the energy consumed by the entire humanity. It is known that in the prehistoric past seismic and volcanic activity on the planet was much greater, but it did not lead to the extinction of life. Some volcanoes in one day of eruption emit into the atmosphere energy that exceeds the annual electricity production of any country. More than 3500 thousand volcanic eruptions were recorded in the 20th century. In large eruptions, the amount of energy released exceeds the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by a factor of tens or even hundreds. These eruptions often cause significant damage to the economies of individual countries and may cause loss of life, but they have had no noticeable effect on population growth. Numerous atmospheric nuclear tests have shown that mass fires are simply impossible in the shockwave zone. References to the example of mass fires in the nuclear bombed Hiroshima are absolutely incorrect. This Japanese city, where bamboo buildings prevailed, burned out not because of the impact of light radiation, but because of mass kitchen fires in damaged buildings, as the majority of the Japanese population at that time used coal stoves for cooking. Of course, there are exceptions: nuclear explosions in the vicinity of oil refineries, large fuel storage facilities, or oilfields are bound to produce significant soot emissions into the atmosphere. However, the experience of the 1991 events in the Persian Gulf clearly shows that the smoke from many burning oil wells and oil storages did not rise above 6 kilometers and did not reach the stratosphere. Proponents of the "nuclear winter" theory are fond of recalling the large eruption of the Tambora volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa in 1815. The effect of this powerful eruption resulted in some cooling, but despite crop failures and famine, there was no significant reduction in population.

The speaker fell silent, pondering something, and returned to the speech:

– It is likely that nuclear power plants, burial grounds, chemical plants, as well as volcanoes and supervolcanoes all over the planet, which are likely to wake up and release ash and energy into the atmosphere, will surpass the negative consequences of nuclear war itself. As for Yellowstone or other supervolcanoes – there is no reason to believe that the energy of 100-500 kiloton airbursts 100-500 kilotons apart is enough to trigger their eruption. The radioactivity of the explosion products decreases rapidly over time; in 7, 49 and 343 days after the explosion their activity decreases by a factor of 10, 100 and 1000, respectively, compared to the activity one hour after the explosion. Strikes on nuclear power plants, spent nuclear fuel storage facilities and nuclear industry enterprises are another matter. Destruction of such facilities can release thousands of times more radioactive material into the air than would be produced by a bomb explosion. In the event of a direct hit by a charge and vaporization of a reactor or radioactive material storage facility, the area of land uninhabitable would be hundreds, and possibly thousands, of times larger than the area contaminated by a ground-based nuclear explosion. The majority of the population would be doomed to extinction due to the destruction of life-supporting infrastructure, even without exposure to the destructive factors of nuclear weapons, and without food, medical care, and shelter over their heads. Nuclear war would kill a significant portion of the world's population, but millions would survive and retain key technologies. Countries in the subtropical belt, far from areas where nuclear weapons would be used, would be in the best position to benefit.