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What Bikini Atoll Looks Like Today (2017)
- blendergeek 2y agohttps://archive.is/oGLO7 https://archive.is/oGLO7
- BurningFrog 2y agoThe thriving wildlife sounds a lot like Chernobyl. When humans disappear, nature thrives. The higher mutation and cancer rates don't really matter in aggregate.
- oskarkk 2y agoI think that harmful effects of radiation in places like that matter mostly in the context of life expectancy and the well-being of individual organisms (that may be unlucky to e.g. ingest some particularly radiating matter and quickly die), but not the general growth of the population. Higher cancer rates may not matter much if the organisms that get cancer can reproduce before they die. Compared to other types of pollution and other human-related dangers to wildlife, some level of radiation isn't that harmful to nature.
- kristofferR 2y agoThe Dogs of Chernobyl (great video report): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVGwOP_zi8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVGwOP_zi8
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- abound 2y agoThe note about using C-14 (introduced from nuclear blasts) to date the age of living cells is fascinating.
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoI read this several times as C-4 not C-14 and was very curious how one would date the age of living cells with plastic explosives. I think I need more coffee.
- prerok 2y agoSorry, say what? C-14 comes from exposure to radiation also from the sun. Dating by it would make no sense in recent history because it would be too hard. Am I missing something?
- prerok 2y agoAnswering my own question, after rereading TFA. It's more because the C-14 was doubled and not because C-14 did not exist before.
- eigenket 2y agoThis graph [1] available on Wikipedia answers this question. The level of carbon 14 in the atmosphere (in the southern hemisphere) roughly doubled between 1955 and 1963 ish. This coincides with the era of above ground nuclear testing. Since then it has been decaying back to the baseline. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14#/media/File%3ARadiocarbon_bomb_spike.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14#/media/File%3ARadioc...
- prerok 2y agoIndeed, I may have misread the GP comment, understanding that it stated that C-14 appeared because of the nuclear tests. They may have meant the addition. I did try to correct my mistake by answering my own question...
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- declan_roberts 2y agoI wonder why "extinction rebellion" types don't love nuclear power more. When it works right we have unlimited clean energy. And when it goes wrong you have a 50,000 year nature preserve.
- hammock 2y ago[flagged]
- ForTheKidz 2y agoBecause we talk about the harms of radiation far more than we discuss the harms of pollution and CO2, despite the latter having orders of magnitude more health impacts. We'd have to have hundreds or maybe thousands of chernobyls a year to compete.
- wkat4242 2y agoIf you look only at deaths yes. But radioactive contamination can lead to a lot more damage to health and nature than just deaths. As an example, Fukushima caused 1 death but its pollution was detected all the way across the Atlantic. Yet usually only deaths are factored in. And the biggest issue is that one incident can cause so much of it. Add to the fact that we tend to rely on the lowest bidder who will then inevitably cut corners to make as much of a profit for their shareholders, and accidents will happen. Also, there's proliferation risk. No, nuclear material from power plants isn't useable for nuclear bombs but it is for dirty bombs. If we do it, it should be state managed like the military. We don't let commercial parties play around with nuclear bombs. Why should they be trusted with power plants that contain a hell of a lot more nuclear material? Edit: oh and uranium mining is also pretty polluting business. I'm not saying that coal is better. But renewable certainly is. That should be the #1 goal, and the base load met by power storage. Only by nukes if there's no other way. Anyway that's my opinion as an environmental type.
- richardw 2y agoAnd if nuclear became the default clean energy technology, it would have to be shared worldwide. Every country with the same issues, but varying levels of competence, political alignment, terror risks etc. do we want 100 000 nuclear power stations? (Edit: although maybe thorium might shift the calculation.)
- Animats 2y agoWhat, did Medium just copy over Stanford's alumni magazine? Here's the original story.[1] [1] https://stanfordmag.org/contents/what-bikini-atoll-looks-like-today https://stanfordmag.org/contents/what-bikini-atoll-looks-lik...
- tanaros 2y agoMedium is a publishing/hosting platform for authors. This Medium account is (or purports to be) the official account of the Stanford alumni magazine.
- crusty 2y agoIt appears that it was published on medium and subsequently added to the standfordmag site, hence the 2 links to it they're and the notice that new articles are published there. It probably just remains because they have no control over medium, so they can't turn the page into a permanent redirect, and they don't want to just take it down and break links.
- labster 2y agoIf I may go off-topic, I wonder why the “Standford” spelling is such a common typo? Is there a linguistic reason for it, or is it some sort of infectious meme?
- Avicebron 2y agoI mean typing it slowly, left ring finger 's', left pointer finger 't', left pinky 'a', right pointer 'n', then because 'f' and 'd' are so close on a qwerty keyboard any sloppiness between the left pointer and middle finger sitting on the 'd', 'f' would mean the d gets hit first as you roll into the 'f', seems pretty easy to make
- lolinder 2y agoIt's possible it's QWERTY-related as a sibling suggests, but there's also precedent for this specific kind of sound change in many dialects of English: /d/ is a stop consonant, which are commonly inserted in the middle of a nasal (/n/) and fricative (/f/), and in particular /d/ is produced with the tip of the tongue the same way that /n/ is, so it and /t/ (the unvoiced variant) are the most likely stop consonants to be inserted after /n/. Other examples of this effect: Samson -> Sampson prince -> prints hamster -> hampster warmth -> warmpth fence -> fents
- jmyeet 2y agoI only learned last year that you can dive the atomic fleet [1][2]. What is the atomic fleet? As part of the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, they dragged a bunch of WW2 ships (from both the US and Japan) and detonated bombs above them to test how effective such weapons were at sinking ships. As part of this, you can often get to set foot on Bikini Atoll, something normally not possible AFAIK where you can only stay a few hours to stay below radiation thresholds. A whole bunch of people used to live there but were essentially bullied into leaving and now essentially live as refugess, still unable to return [3]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5bKzTbHu4A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5bKzTbHu4A [2]: https://www.scubadoctor.com.au/article-diving-the-nuclear-fleet-at-bikini-atoll.htm https://www.scubadoctor.com.au/article-diving-the-nuclear-fl... [3]: https://thebikiniproject.org/the-bikini-people/ https://thebikiniproject.org/the-bikini-people/
- margalabargala 2y ago> something normally not possible AFAIK where you can only stay a few hours to stay below radiation thresholds. As one learns by reading the linked article, radiation levels on the island are either equal to or below the levels that aircraft passengers are exposed to at 35k feet. Just don't eat the coconuts or crabs.
- hulitu 2y ago> As one learns by reading the linked article, radiation levels on the island are either equal to or below the levels that aircraft passengers are exposed to at 35k feet. Time ?
- margalabargala 2y agoNot really sure what you're asking. Time spent in an airplane passes at the same rate as time spent on an island. One hour on either is an equivalent dose.
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- JumpCrisscross 2y ago“The method has been used for everything from measuring the age of ringless trees in the Amazon to examining whether humans generate new olfactory bulb neurons into adulthood” …do we?
- defrost 2y agoQualified 'Yes'. We do but the extent is limited compared to other mammals, brain mass normalised. There's a historical overview here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK55966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK55966/ I'd have to dig around for comparative mammal brain regen rates.
- somishere 2y agoMy wife is currently in the Marshall Islands commemorating an anniversary related to the nuclear testing. The trauma and fallout, cultural and nuclear, persists to this day - over 7 decades (and how many generations?) since the Bravo test. I've heard and read a lot about the atrocities visited upon the Marshallese in the name of research in the last six months. Including around the potential "intentionality" of the human testing [1]. It is harrowing. And a hard pill to swallow in any context. The Nolan film did the islands little justice. As an aside: while indirect, the journey to the Marshalls isn't as onorous as the article suggests - yes there's an island hopper, but United also fly direct from Honolulu. Though getting to Bikini is likely another adventure in itself. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_4.1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_4.1
- cryptoegorophy 2y agoWhen it comes to the most powerful weapon in the world special at that time There is little to none consideration for nature and people. Would you rather own the most powerful weapon and be the most powerful state or consider life’s of other people?
- celticninja 2y agoAs it turned out there was still a consideration of other people. For example if Nazi Germany got the bomb first then many more people would have been miserable. The greater good
- somishere 2y agoThe Marshall Islands tests were carried out after the end of WWII. It's worth considering that the US also used the islands as a dumping ground for waste from previous tests in the US [1] ... At a site which is now under threat of leaking due to the effects of climate change [2] [1] https://www.latimes.com/projects/marshall-islands-nuclear-testing-sea-level-rise/ https://www.latimes.com/projects/marshall-islands-nuclear-te... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island
- wewewedxfgdf 2y agoImagine you lived literally in paradise on the most beautiful Pacific atoll - an utterly gorgeous place of peace and serenity and happiness. Literally heaven, surrounded by the most beautiful ocean, reefs and fish. Imagine then they turn up, round you up, take you off your island and send you somewhere else to live forever, taking your home from you. Then they nuke that island repeatedly so it can never be lived on again and is now one the of the most polluted and radioactive and toxic places on earth. Pristine perfect beauty converted to unliveable toxic hell for humans and animals.
- megablast 2y ago> Imagine then they turn up, round you up, take you off your island and send you somewhere else to live forever, taking your home from you. This is the story of mankind, even today people want forcibly remove people.
- ineedaj0b 2y agothere's plenty of paradise like islands in the pacific. you could move all the canadians to siberia's tundra and they'd probably do well. devil's advocate: GODZILLA and all the excitement and joy the franchise gave people would not be as much a thing without the US trying to blow bikini atoll off aerial maps.
- Cheer2171 2y agoYou are a wicked and despicable human being.
- BurningFrog 2y ago> an utterly gorgeous place of peace and serenity and happiness. Pretty sure the people there had just as much conflict, poverty, and misery as the rest of us.
- TheSpiceIsLife 2y agoAnd were always one cyclone (hurricane) away from extinction.
- mkl 2y agoThe grid of palm trees: https://www.google.com/maps/place/11%C2%B036'00.0%22N+165%C2%B024'00.0%22E/@11.6284065,165.5436285,2227m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d11.6!4d165.4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.com/maps/place/11%C2%B036'00.0%22N+165%C2... There are more on the island Enyu south of that, with the old runway.
- ivankelly 2y agoFor a headline “what x looks like today”, I expected more pictures
- hulitu 2y ago> For a headline “what x looks like today”, I expected more pictures They have great writers. /s
- slantaclaus 2y agoSurprisingly few pictures given the title of the article..