Reply #7: It was predictable, though

[Dogmudgeon]

I don't for a moment excuse the negligence or trivialize the accident. Chernobyl was a disastrous, worst-case occurrence, but the science-fiction version of what a radiation accident would be like just didn't happen. Reality happened, not fantasy. And Nature rebounded.

Even a major mercury spill doesn't kill everything off.

We have to stop thinking of nuclear energy, toxic waste, and synthetic chemicals in general, as being the modern versions of demons and evil spirits. They may cause disasters, but imposing our fear-fantasies on them leads to compounding the original mistakes. Nobody even checked up on Chernobyl for much of the 1990s and it became a modern Haunted Forest. Which, judging how the area has "healed" in the absence of human intrusion, was the best outcome possible.

I'm not hopeful. People enjoy their demons. It probably will lead to much more suffering, but fantasy always seems to come first. Happily, the underlying biology is resilient.

--p!