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The Soviet Union holds pretty much all the trophies in large-scale environment devastation.
by badpun 1y ago
The Soviet Union holds pretty much all the trophies in large-scale environment devastation.
- suddenlybananas 1y agoThe amount of environmental devastation in the third world by multinationals dwarfs anything the USSR did.
- decimalenough 1y agoCitation needed. Multinationals aren't angels, but I'm hard pressed to think of anything they've done that's on the scale of the Chernobyl disaster, the Aral Sea drying up, the Kyshtym disaster, Lake Karachay, etc. Even things like clear-cutting the Amazon are usually done by locals (although bigcos are more than happy to buy the resulting soybeans, beef, etc).
- suddenlybananas 1y agoI think you live on another planet. Union Carbide alone killed thousands and thousands of people. Like there are so many industrial disasters caused by corporations that it's patently absurd to act like the USSR did more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_disasters#Industrial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_disaster... Like on this list, the vast majority are done by corporations.
- eru 1y agoThe Soviet Union was only one country. You'd probably want to normalise the industrial disaster score per capita (or even per dollar-equivalent of GDP). Would be an interesting research project. Look for cost of QALY-lost per capita or so from environmental damage.
- timschmidt 1y ago100,000 years from now no one will remember Bhopal as sad as that thought is. But Chernobyl will still be spicy.
- suddenlybananas 1y agoChernobyl will be completely safe in 100 000 years. It's more on scale of centuries to a few millenia. Long time, but not 100 000.
- timschmidt 1y agoI checked before I posted. The remaining Pu-239 will have only transitioned through 4 halflives leaving ~5% still actively radiating. Pu-242 will have only transitioned through 1/3 of a halflife. This is enough that excavation or otherwise disturbing the earth would be unwise.
- Retric 1y agoOverall the area will be ~1/1,000th as radioactive in 100k years, and it’s not that dangerous today. The flip side of that 24,000 year half life is Pu-239 isn’t that hot. 5% of what little Pu-239 is there isn’t that spicy compared to many places people live without significant worry about the natural radiation dose. There’s just not enough Pu-242 to be a significant concern on its own outside of the reactor building which is unlikely to be left alone.
- timschmidt 1y ago> it’s not that dangerous today. It's not the sort of place you want to spend any appreciable time at. Plenty of documented death and mutation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_exclusion_zone#Radioactive_contamination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_exclusion_zone#Radio... > what little Pu-239 is there isn’t that spicy compared to many places people live without significant worry about the natural radiation dose. Walking around most of the 30km exclusion zone 100,000 years from now will be comparable to walking around a granite quary in terms of gamma dose. Which is still elevated compared to most of the planet, but usually not a worry. However, granite does an excellent job of sequestering the radioactive elements whereas I explicitly called out disturbing the earth as a risk due to inhalation and the compounded effect of internalized isotopes which is much greater at the Chernobyl site than elsewhere. Hence the need for a $2.1 Billion confinement structure which is only designed to last 100 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_New_Safe_Confinement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_New_Safe_Confinement No amount of inhaled Pu-239 is going to be fun for anyone.