A small compilation of facts that prove that nature will always triumph in the end, regardless of whether we survive or not.
Hello dear friends of ecotrain, I hope you are very well and have had an excellent start of the year, I want to start by apologizing for my lack of activity, the Christmas holidays and my loved ones have captured all my attention lately, but I'm back with more motivation than ever to start new projects.
Today I want to talk to you about something that this year also brings a lot, and that is hope, or I will talk to you about how nature shows us that no matter how terrible the conditions are, or how much damage our mistakes do to the world, there will always be hope for new life... life will always find a way to move forward.
Few examples of this are as spectacular as the CEZ. [Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This is the name given to the area quarantined after the 1986 incident at reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet-era Ukraine. But to explain why this is so special I must explain a little about what happened.
The disaster
On April 26, 1986, at 1.23 AM after a failed safety test at reactor number 4 of the Vladimir Lenin nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Two nearly simultaneous explosions were recorded in the reactor core, which not only exposed the reactor's highly radioactive burning core to the open air, but also released hundreds of tons of highly radioactive materials throughout the area, and spread a cloud of radioactive ash that covered much of the region and spread as far away as Sweden....
Containing the fire, collecting the radioactive material and resealing the opening in the reactor chamber was a titanic effort that cost the labor of half a million people, 68 billion modern dollars, and the lives of tens, or even possibly hundreds of thousands. To learn more about it I highly recommend watching the HBO Documentary Series Chernobyl. It's honestly not to be missed.
After the evacuation of the populated areas, it was necessary to start a massive operation to eliminate all animals and plants in the exclusion zone, as they were considered highly radioactive and could spread radiation-related diseases within the ecosystem. The people in charge of this task were known as the Liquidators.
This effort included, among other things, the removal of all pets and wildlife in the area, the deforestation of large tracts of land and the subsequent removal of contaminated soil, which led to the destruction of large amounts of the area's ecosystem.
But that was then, already since the 2000s something impressive has been reported. Life is returning to the CEZ area.
Sightings of bobcats, elk, deer, wolves, bears and exotic birds prompted the UN to investigate the Chernobyl exclusion area and their findings paint a truly incredible picture.
Not only has the vegetation of the area taken over again, but unlike the pine forests that existed before the catastrophe, these new forests are much more diverse in the type of plants that make up the area.
Animal life has returned, and in fact the population of wild creatures is much higher in the exclusion zone than in the surrounding forests, no doubt because they are not hunted or disturbed by humans in the exclusion zone.
Even according to estimates by the governments of Ukraine and Belarus, who share the administration of the exclusion zone, there is a growing population of approximately 300 wild wolves in the area.
To see the information regarding the UN investigations in the area I leave the link here
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/how-chernobyl-has-become-unexpected-haven-wildlife
But not only that, under the waters of the pripyat river moves a marine ecosystem that has given rise to the appearance of unusually large specimens of catfish, but not because of radiation, but because they are not fished and food is plentiful.
The Chernobyl fish have grown so large that they have given rise to urban legends about monstrous catfish that can devour people, there is even an episode of the popular Discovery Channel series on fishing, 'Monsters of Rio' where the protagonist goes hunting, or rather fishing for one of these supposed monsters. I will leave here a short video about it.
But far from all the dramatization of the supposed documentary, the reality is that the Chernobyl fish are rather normal fish, of normal size and without appreciable effects of radiation, life has been so tenacious in reclaiming the contaminated areas that even in the channels where the water that cooled the nuclear reactor was poured now has a fish ecosystem.
Here is a very excellent video showing a huge amount of fish in one of the cooling water canals.
But that is not all. Since 1991 a discovery was made that may change the way we see life and even the cosmos in chernobyl, a black fungus was growing around the walls of the sarcophagus enclosing the collapsed reactor of the nuclear plant.
After further study, it was discovered that the fungus in question thrived by not only being immune to radiation, but by breaking it down and transforming it into its energy and sustenance. This discovery not only shows us the power of nature to adapt and overcome any obstacle, but also opens up the possibility of life in places we previously thought would be impossible, such as planets with high levels of radiation. More information here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
No doubt... nature is wonderful.
Conclusions...
Without a doubt the Chernobyl disaster never ceases to teach us lessons, first it taught us the dangers of playing with a power [nuclear energy] we did not yet fully understand, it showed us the failures and shortcomings of the Soviet communist model, the human cost of decisions based solely on political considerations, and more recently it shows us, that even if we destroy the world.... unlike us, nature will go on, because life will always find a way to triumph... the struggle to care for and protect life on this planet is a struggle for our survival as a species, because nature finds it easier to deal with a radioactive wasteland than with us...