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And parents replacing the sand in their children's sandpits. There are parts of southern Germany where you are not supposed to collect mushrooms or hunt and eat

And parents replacing the sand in their children's sandpits. There are parts of southern Germany where you are not supposed to collect mushrooms or hunt and eat game, because there is still enough residual nuclear contamination to be harmful to humans. Proponents of nuclear energy like to pretend that it is almost completely safe. But if we look beyond the, admittedly relatively low, confirmed number of immediate casualties of nuclear accidents, there are serious long-term consequences that remain an issue for decades and more. And Chernobyl was still far from the worst case scenario as most of the fallout hit sparsely populated areas.

luckylion 5y ago
Germans love to be panicked though, I think that's a much larger part of it than actual fallout. The recommendations for self-harvested mushrooms and game are to not eat them excessively in the areas that were affected more strongly. Contrast that with the damage that was done by decades of coal power plants polluting the air you breathe. Coal is more damaging each year than chernobyl was, it just gets much less attention.
- ben_w 5y ago
  People in general are bad at risk assessment. In many countries, roughly 30% don’t want vaccines, citing the 1:10,000 side effects, ignoring the roughly 1:1,000 fatality rate (as a fraction of global population, 1:55 of infected[0]). Same deal with playing lotteries in the expectation of getting rich, or fearing terrorists more than dangerous drivers. [0] https://covid19.who.int/ https://covid19.who.int/
  - luckylion 5y ago
    Certainly, but imminent doom is essentially a hobby in Germany. We have the term Angstlust which I always found quite fitting: deriving pleasure from fear. It's an interesting realization when you've grown up in Germany and then live outside of it for a while and realize that not everyone is constantly worried about the world ending tomorrow.
    - ben_w 5y ago
      Curious, I’ve not noticed that moving to Berlin from the UK. Where did you go? In wondering if the U.K. is just as bad, or if Berlin is unusually chill.
      - luckylion 5y ago
        Denmark. I didn't have the impression that Berlin is different in that regard (though it's very different in many, so maybe?).
KptMarchewa 5y ago
This is the effect of stupid scare, not any real danger.
sgift 5y ago
I often wonder how different perception would be if people ran around with the equivalent of a Geiger counter for air pollution. It's easy to argue that parts of Germany are still contaminated by nuclear radiation, but they are by air pollution too, which is also incredibly dangerous. But no one would think about not letting their children play outside because of it.

luckylion 5y ago

Germans love to be panicked though, I think that's a much larger part of it than actual fallout. The recommendations for self-harvested mushrooms and game are to not eat them excessively in the areas that were affected more strongly. Contrast that with the damage that was done by decades of coal power plants polluting the air you breathe. Coal is more damaging each year than chernobyl was, it just gets much less attention.

ben_w 5y ago
People in general are bad at risk assessment. In many countries, roughly 30% don’t want vaccines, citing the 1:10,000 side effects, ignoring the roughly 1:1,000 fatality rate (as a fraction of global population, 1:55 of infected[0]). Same deal with playing lotteries in the expectation of getting rich, or fearing terrorists more than dangerous drivers. [0] https://covid19.who.int/ https://covid19.who.int/
- luckylion 5y ago
  Certainly, but imminent doom is essentially a hobby in Germany. We have the term Angstlust which I always found quite fitting: deriving pleasure from fear. It's an interesting realization when you've grown up in Germany and then live outside of it for a while and realize that not everyone is constantly worried about the world ending tomorrow.
  - ben_w 5y ago
    Curious, I’ve not noticed that moving to Berlin from the UK. Where did you go? In wondering if the U.K. is just as bad, or if Berlin is unusually chill.
    - luckylion 5y ago
      Denmark. I didn't have the impression that Berlin is different in that regard (though it's very different in many, so maybe?).

KptMarchewa 5y ago

This is the effect of stupid scare, not any real danger.

sgift 5y ago

I often wonder how different perception would be if people ran around with the equivalent of a Geiger counter for air pollution. It's easy to argue that parts of Germany are still contaminated by nuclear radiation, but they are by air pollution too, which is also incredibly dangerous. But no one would think about not letting their children play outside because of it.