[Freeciv-Dev] Re: patch: nuclear fallout

[Jeff Mallatt <jjm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2000/07/05 19:20 , SamBC wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Falk Hueffner
>>
><SNIP>
>>
>> Are global cooling and global warming independend? So might it be
>> possible to have a global warming and a global cooling occur in the
>> same turn? Would seem unrealistic. But if it was coupled, oune could
>> just carefully drop a few nukes to compensate for pollution :)
>>
>
>It doesn't seem odd to get them together, considering the mechanisms of
>Nuclear Winter & Global Warming. CivII/Freeciv Global Warming is represented
>by the raising of sea levels due to melting of icecaps, which is dependent
>entirely on overall atmospheric CO2, wherever generated.
>
>Nuclear winter, OTOH, is a local effect (in reality, haven't used Jeff's
>patch). It causes cooling because the fallout stops the sun's rays reaching
>that local area. Consequently, NW tends to affect inland, and GW affects
>coasts. So they do not conflict, and it makes perfect sense for them to
>occur together, with the tiny but difficult to code problem that 'real'
>nuclear winter would be a fairly local effect (one continent say)

In the current patch, warming and cooling are completely independent.  They
can happen on the same turn.  Nuking to compensate for pollution will
"work" to some extent, but since both change terrain into things you don't
really want, it won't "help".  After a few rounds of Global Warming *and*
Nuclear Winter, all that will be left is swamp, desert, tundra, glacier
(and hills and mountains, which aren't converted by warming/cooling).

Also, in the current patch, Nuclear Winter is a global effect.

jjm