The Wolves of Chernobyl

[AutumnW]

There is a stunning documentary on Youtube called, 'The Wolves of Chernobyl' I believe it is a Nova production.

It's the most astonishing film I've seen for years. Scientists go back to Chernobyl, decades after the meltdown and find the area, devoid of humanity, is not only recovered but the animals, breeding right near the red zone, are doing great.

I've watched it with a few people and have come to the tentative conclusion that nuclear radiation, for some reason, is NOT as destructive of the environment as was previously thought.

The land around Chernobyl is a pristine wilderness chalk full of healthy wildlife. Go figure!

[Bill Ryan]

Fascinating. Here it is:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9omsEdjp6o4

[AutumnW]

Thank you for the link! I find copying and pasting with this iPad impossible. After watching this doc I was left wondering how bad the initial damage was to plants and wildlife. I want to know how mutagenic a meltdown really is and how much cancer it really does cause.

Initially, likely a LOT. But mutations? No obvious mutations there now, at all. It's possible that the first wave of wildlife born after the meltdown was mutated badly and not able to reproduce. Subsequent individuals who were born near the red zone, whose parents somehow reproduced though, should, according to theory, be showing at least some mild signs of exposure.

The plants and trees should also be twisted and weird, but appear VERY robust.

So, what gives? Long term radiation studies on mice, mocking up exposure levels akin to Chernobyl have surely been done? And they would show, without doubt, that everything we know about long term exposure is wrong.

These animals all register very high on Geiger counters and they're not cooked. Why, they are probably healthier than people driven to an early grave because they worry so much about Fukushima.

[Bill Ryan]

I want to know how mutagenic a meltdown really is and how much cancer it really does cause.



Cancers in the animal population wouldn't be visible: they'd simply quietly die, and we'd never know.

And mutations might only show up over the long term. If some baby animals were born severely mutated or deformed, they'd just not live and would soon be eaten: so we'd never see that either. The only mutations that would survive would be more subtle ones, and those too might not be readily visible.

Scientific study of all this would have to involve capturing a reasonable sample of each of quite a number of different species, and taking them all back to the labs. As best I know, that's not been done, though it'd seem to be a very worthwhile and interesting project.

[Satori]

In a similar vein, there is a documentary on Netflix titled "City 40". It is about a secret Russian town that was developed just after WWII during the "Cold War" to develop plutonium and such for the nuclear program. It was so secret, mostly from Russian people, that until recently it was not even depicted on maps. The USA and other nations knew if it's existence, and similarly Russia knew of the existence of such secret cities in the USA etc... As is typical, the secrets are usually kept largely from a countries' people.

City 40 is now called Sersk. It is highly contaminated with radiation, as are the lakes, rivers and forests around it. Many people who lived there died of radiation related illnesses. Many more became ill and their deaths have been hastened but not noticeably so. To look at the city and its environs you would not know any of this. Things look normal, so to speak, and the country is plush with green vegetation and flowing with lakes and rivers.

[AutumnW]

It's also possible that the threat of radioactive poisoning has been ramped up by big oil. Not saying I 'believe' this, just a huge question mark. What if there has been this great propaganda battle going on, with the nuclear power industry promoting their carbon free energy by creating propaganda aboutbthe threat of climate change through oil use. And what if big oil has been ramping up the dangers of radiation, in their own interest?

What a massive mind game that would be! Put that in the category of, "nothing would surprise me anymore!"

[Sophocles]

I remember this came out a while back, it`s also about the life in Chernobyl.

Chernobyl - Life in the Dead Zone

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[Iloveyou]

. . and let me remind you of that one from back in 2015

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[AutumnW]

Satori, thanks for that info about Sirsk. Sophocles and Iloveyou, thank you so much for the links. I have something to watch tonight.

[Sunny-side-up]

Bill

Scientific study of all this would have to involve capturing a reasonable sample of each of quite a number of different species, and taking them all back to the labs. As best I know, that's not been done, though it'd seem to be a very worthwhile and interesting project.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCUxNxHSjI


http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/river-monsters/videos/will-jeremy-capture-a-legendary-radioactive-river-monster-of-chernobyl/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mufnY-VTV8

If you can find the full episode, it's very interesting.

Well he catches one and it is mutated.
Not a mutated monster but a stunted, half it's size for it's age fish.
The fish was 16 times higher in rad count.

[Olaf]

Scientists also examined birds in Chernobyl. The birds were astonishing healthy despite of the radiation.

http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1375876/chernobyl-bird.jpg

The interesting question was: Why can they withstand so much radiation?
Here comes the answer, and it is important for us humans: The birds had a much greater production of glutathione in their cells, protecting them from free radicals.

Glutathione is the most important antioxdiant in cells - also in human cells. If you have a great load of free radicals - for example during having a flu - it is most important to keep your glutathione level high.
That protects you from vitamins being destroyd, from loss of trace elements and from malfunction of encymes.

Glutathione can be produced in the cells from the three amino acids: cysteine, glycine and glutamine. In most cases only the first is missing. It is allways a good idea to have some kind of cysteine at home.

From this I also learned to take acetyl cysteine when having x-rays.

sources:
for instance here: https://phys.org/news/2014-04-chernobyl-birds-ionising.html

[amor]

The two dogs which were attached to transmitters disappeared. Among other things this could mean that while the animals reproduced at very early ages, their radiated diet and selves did not live long. They probably felt ill, went to the river for water, died and fell in and were washed away from the observation range of the rangers.