What do people think of this statement?

[Beaufort]

"From what I understand, from the point of view of nature conservation, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl was the best thing that ever happened. The place is now a wildlife paradise.

It's rubbish that nuclear is bad for the environment.

It may be bad for people, but environmentally, it's a god send."

http://www.hunting-directory.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1140160187/15#15

 

[Ereiam_jh]

Oh god I've got a stalker.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

The point I was making is that although withoutn doubt a human trajedy, as far as nature conservation is concerned Chernobyl has had a lot of positive effects.

Read James Lovelock, one of the foremost, probably the foremost environmental thinker of our age.

 

[Hercules]

A-A,

These fools only read Walt Disney cartoons and would not understand truth and reality.

 

[Beaufort]

Oh, was it you who said this?

 

[Beaufort]

The division bell has sounded and it's time to choose which lobby to register your vote in. Do you, like AA and Hercules, believe that nuclear accidents are a "god-send" and brilliant for the environment? Or do you think they're probably a bit of a bummer for the environment?

 

[Hercules]

Nuclear incidents brought about the end to the War in Japan. Can't be all that bad.

 

[Beaufort]

I've seen the footage - the environment didn't look particularly rosy afterwards.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

The environment round chernobyl is a wildlife paradise since man kind left.

 

[flying_change]

Quite a lot of people were killed though, but no doubt you think that was worthwhile.

 

[Beaufort]

It was a "god send", apparently, flying_change.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

No I don't think it was worthwhile at all.

Rs you criticise me for putting words into your mouth and you seek to do the same. How hypocritical can you get?

Where did I say it was worthwhile?

 

[Ereiam_jh]

Are you that incapable of having two things in your head at the same time.

It's widely accepted that the nature around chernobyl is in a better state now that the area has been de industrialised and is devoid of people. So what? That doesn't mean the accident was a good thing, just that it was good for the nature around Chernobyl.

 

[Beaufort]

Well, you said it was a "god send". That's pretty much saying it was a "good thing" in my opinion.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

I said that from the point of view of nature conservation it was a god send.

Try hard and you might get two simultaneous concepts going at the same time.

a) good for the nature around chernobyl.

b) bad for the people around chernobyl.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

The Washington Post had an interview with James Lovelock of Gaia fame. That book explained how the Earth works as a self-regulating negative feedback system. He now thinks that Earth is trapped in a number of positive feedback loops, with everything getter warmer at once.

“The nature of Earth’s biosphere is that, under pressure form industrialization, it resists such heating, and then it resists some more.

Then, he says, it adjusts.

Within the next decade or two, Mr. Lovelock forecasts, Gaia will boost her thermostat.

“It is going too fast,” he says softly. “We will burn.”

Why is that?

“Our global furnace is out of control. By 2020, 2050, you will be able to sail a sailboat to the North Pole. The Amazon will be a desert, and the forests of Siberia will burn and release more methane and plagues will return.”

…Today the environmentally conscious seek salvation in solar sells, recycling and tend thousand wind turbines. “It won’t matter a damn,” Mr. Lovelock says. “They make the mistake of thinking we have decades. We don’t.”…

Mr. Lovelock favors genetically modified crops, which require less water, and nuclear energy. Only the atom can produce enough electricity to persuade industrialized nations to abandon fossil fuels…

What of Three Mile Island? Chernobyl? Mr. Lovelock is shaking his head. How many died, he asks. A few hundred? The radiation exclusion zone around Chernobyl is the lushest and most diverse zone of flora and fauna in Eurasia…

“We desperately need a Moses to take us to the Arctic and preserve civilization.”

James Lovelock is currently promoting his new book, The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity.

 

[Beaufort]

You think Chernobyl was a "god send". I don't.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

I don't think chernobyl was a god send.

Are you completely stupid?

 

[Beaufort]

"[Chernobyl] may be bad for people, but environmentally, it's a god send."

Did you say that or not?

 

[Ereiam_jh]

That's part of a deliberately provocative posting I made on another forum to start a discussion about nuclear power. So what?

The point was that the nature in the radiation exclusion zone around the plant has benefited since it became de-industrialised and the people left.

 

[Beaufort]

I'm sorry, A_A, did you say that or not? If you did, are you now saying you didn't mean it?

 

[Beaufort]

Actually, don't worry about it too much, kid: at least Hercules agrees with you!

 

[mrdarcy]

All I can say is watch 'The Hills Have Eyes'...

Seriously though there's a great website set up by a Ukrainian woman who frequently takes her motorbike into the exclusion zone. It makes for very interesting reading:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/cherlinks.html

 

[Beaufort]

Let's send A-A there to languish in the environmental paradise.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

Yes, I've seen that, it's fantastic isn't it? Really eirie all those deserted villages and farms.

I loved the bit abnout the unknown soldier in the unknown village.

 

[mrdarcy]

"Yes, I've seen that, it's fantastic isn't it? Really eirie all those deserted villages and farms.

I loved the bit about the unknown soldier in the unknown village."

She's one crazy biker chick. It is fascinating but very sad to imagine what it must have been like on that day in 1986 and the days following it, and to see the area as it is now.

Wildlife does seem to be surviving and even thriving where human beings cannot - but perhaps that's because human beings have a much longer life expectancy. I guess there aren't many naturalists in the area studying the longevity of the wildlife and comparing them to the same species elsewhere.

Incidentally I'm a convert, if a reluctant one, to nuclear energy. The consequences of when it goes wrong are horrific but no where near what the effects would be on the human race if global warming continues apace...

 

[Ereiam_jh]

"Incidentally I'm a convert, if a reluctant one, to nuclear energy. The consequences of when it goes wrong are horrific but no where near what the effects would be on the human race if global warming continues apace... "

Exactly how I feel. The nenvironmental consequences of not using Nuclear power may well be massively worse than using it.

 

[Beaufort]

All very interesting but the fact remains you think nuclear pollution is a "god send" for the environment.

 

[Ereiam_jh]

No I haven't said that. I said that Nuclear is a god send for the environment. By which I mean nuclear power.

 

[Beaufort]

You said:

"From what I understand, from the point of view of nature conservation, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl was the best thing that ever happened. The place is now a wildlife paradise."