Five billion people will die in a modern nuclear war with the impact of global-dipicu hunger by soot that blocks sunlight in the atmosphere-the possibility of the possibility of far beyond victims caused by a deadly explosion.

Scientists at Rutgers University map the effects of six possible nuclear conflict scenarios. Full -scale war between the US and Russia, the worst cases that may, will erase more than half of humanity, they said in research published in the journal Nature Food.

Estimates are based on the calculation of how much soot will enter the atmosphere of a fire storm that is turned on by a nuclear weapon blasting. Researchers use climate forecasting devices supported by the National Atmospheric Research Center, which allows them to estimate the productivity of major crops based on countries per country.

Even relatively small scale conflicts will have a destroying consequence for global food production. Local battles between India and Pakistan will see the harvest decreased by around 7% in five years, this study suggested, while the US-Russian war will see production down 90% in three to four years.

The researchers also consider whether using plants that are currently used as animal feed or reduce food waste can compensate for losses immediately after the conflict, but concluded that savings will be minimal in large scale battles.

This study emerged after the scourge of the conflict between the US and Russia was raised after the invasion of Vladimir Putin to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned in April that there was a risk of “serious” nuclear war broke out.

The data tells us one thing,” said Alan Robock, a research co-author and a professor of climate science at the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University. “We have to prevent nuclear war from occurring.”