Post-Apocalyptic Landscape?

I've been thinking about writing some short stories based in a post-apocalyptic setting, in which nuclear bombs were used to destroy the majority of large citys and such.

In most fictional works, the post-apocalyptic world is a big ugly desert (Fallout, Wasteland), and we're all sand-suckers and such. However, others show the environment being as it is today (Like Jericho).

Anyhow, your opinions please. What do you think a post-apocalyptic world would be like, socially and environmentally?

Answer:
A small-scale, regional nuclear war could disrupt the global climate for a decade or more, with environmental effects that could be devastating for everyone on Earth, researchers have concluded.

The scientists said about 40 countries possess enough plutonium or uranium to construct substantial nuclear arsenals. Setting off a Hiroshima-size weapon could cause as many direct fatalities as all of World War II.
"Considering the relatively small number and size of the weapons, the effects are surprisingly large," said one of the researchers, Richard Turco of the University of California, Los Angeles. "The potential devastation would be catastrophic and long term."

The lingering effects could re-shape the environment in ways never conceived. In terms of climate, a nuclear blast could plunge temperatures across large swaths of the globe. "It would be the largest climate change in recorded human history," Alan Robock, associate director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers' Cook College and another member of the research team.
I don't think a nuclear war would turn the world into one big desert.

The post-apocalyptic fiction I like the most is the one of Mad Max. Yes, it is a desert too, but that's because it plays in Australia. You can see a destroyed Sydney in the end of part 3. That's how I would imagine it - the really populated areas pretty much wiped out, the remaining people around teaming up trying to get the resources they need to survive.

Not trying to push you towards plagiarism, but if I were you I would rent the Mad Max movies before starting to write, for some inspiration :)

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