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from the truth-and-perseverance-opposing-industry-spin dept.
Alexey Yablokov and Chris Busby are biologists whose efforts have been to make people aware of the negative health effects of very low-dose ionizing radiation.
Chris Busby reports via CounterPunch
There will be many obituaries published about Alexey V. Yablokov, the extraordinary Russian scientist, activist, and human being, but I would like to briefly record a few words about the man I knew. And to weep a few tears.
He was a strong [...] friend and fellow fighter for truth, and his recent death on the evening of January 10th means a lot for me--and (though we may [not] know it) for us all on this increasingly contaminated planet.
[...] He, like me, saw the issue of radiation and health as one which was fundamentally a political one, and only secondarily as scientific.
[...] In 1998, [...] Alexey and I [...] with Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake, Alice Stewart, and (later) Molly Scott Cato [...] decided to form an alternative [to ICRP, the International Commission on Radiological Protection]: the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR).
This needed an alternative radiation risk model, and we worked on this over the next five years to create the first ECRR report which was published in 2003 and rose upon the nuclear industry horizon with the brightness of a thousand suns.
[Continues...]
Alexey organised the translation into Russian, and it quickly appeared also in French, Japanese, and Spanish. Alexey suggested we publish a series of books and ECRR reports, and quickly began to put together the first compilation of evidence on Chernobyl effects which we published together in 2006: Chernobyl 20 Years On: Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident .
[...] In 2009, he came to the Lesvos conference of the ECRR and made a presentation on Chernobyl effects which we published in the Proceedings. Later, we were in Geneva together and stood vigil together outside the World Health organisation with our sandwich boards. It was freezing. We took the message all over the place. Even after he became ill and had various operations, he would struggle along somehow: we were there in East Berlin, talking about Fukushima.
[...] What Alexey, Inge, and I had in common was the realisation that to win this battle we had to act in several domains: in the scientific literature, in the political area, and in the legal arena also. We had to be brave and accept the attacks and the lies spread about us.
We wrote up the science in books and reports and we began publishing in the peer-reviewed literature; we developed the alternative risk model and entered into court cases as experts and finally in my own case as the legal representative. And it worked: between us we have shaken the foundations of the current bogus structure. And I believe we will ultimately win.
I last saw him in Moscow in 2015 at his 80th birthday celebration to which he invited me (and paid my ticket). A sort of vodka-[fueled] scientific congress. The only other English speaker there was Tim Mousseau. The Russian scientists there were so clever. So honest. Such a change from all the time-serving bastards and idiots I meet in the radiation risk community venues like CERRIE [Committee Examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters] or more recently the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. We hugged and cried and tossed back the vodka.
But now ... they have all gone. Karl Z Morgan, John Gofman, Ed Radford, Ernest Sternglass, Alice Stewart, Rosalie Bertell, and now Alexey. All my old mates. Where are the young scientists to replace them? Nowhere. It is all brush and spin and jobs now.
So: Goodbye Alexey Vladimirovitch. A brave and powerful presence, a big man in every way. Perhaps the last of the warrior scientists.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 20 2017, @02:53AM
Most of the publicity on Chernobyl has shown how remarkably healthy the ecosystem is. Before anyone goes nuts, well of course the radiation is bad for the environment. Despite lack of publicity on the matter, I'm sure several generations of all animals in the area suffered. The question is - how much did they suffer? But, today, there are healthy populations of just about every kind of animal in the area. How many of them have migrated to the area? How many of them are the descendants of survivors of the disaster?
I watched a documentary on wolverines, for instance. The little devils seem to be thriving! I did note that they don't seem to be as evil and wanton as their American cousins are purported to be.
I discovered Elena Filatova's documentary work some years ago. Tonight, I find references to her, but all the links seem to be dead. She even had her own website, with most of her work on it, but that seems to be gone. Ah well, Youtube has dozens of videos about the Chernobyl area. Anyone interested can type "chernobyl" into a search over there, and pick a video.
I did that minutes ago, and one of the top hits was about wolves. The click-bait image had a sad looking wolf that appeared to be suffering from mange, but I don't have an hour to spare right now to watch that video.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 20 2017, @02:58AM
Well, there's the obvious: go live there. Do the experiment yourself. Report back to us on how it works for ya :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 20 2017, @03:26AM
Well - the obvious conclusion is, it's less deadly than we feared it would be.
That doesn't mean it's "safe" to live there.
(Score: 1) by sorokin on Monday January 23 2017, @01:53AM
It means that proximity to humans is more deadly than the radiation in the area. It doesn't mean that radiation isn't harmful.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday January 20 2017, @04:31AM
While I wouldn't recommend it, some people never left. They're still there, living on vegetables they grow there themselves.
It's probably fortunate that they were beyond child bearing years when the accident happened.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @10:51AM
The consequences of Chernobyl [alexanderhiggins.com]
.
Wildlife Around Chernobyl Is NOT Plentiful Nor Are The Remaining Animals Healthy [washingtonsblog.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday January 20 2017, @08:17PM
A 2012 article says:
Scientists found an increase in leg, antennae and wing shape mutations among butterflies collected following the 2011 Fukushima accident.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19245818 [bbc.co.uk]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @04:00AM
Tonight, I find references to her, but all the links seem to be dead.
Because she lied about some stuff? http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2004/05/fraud-exposed-and-true-thing.asp [neilgaiman.com]
http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/chernobyl_trip [hoaxes.org]
So even if the photos and some of it might be true, people treat the story like a poisoned well.
The radiation is still there and the animals are having higher mutation rates. The animals have high populations because humans aren't around. And no surprise since the radiation isn't high enough to kill most animals that fast. They might end up dying of cancers at a higher rate, it's mostly after they breed so the population goes up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/science/nature-adapts-to-chernobyl.html [nytimes.com]
Those comparisons have generally shown a lower abundance of birds and rodents in the more radioactive areas.
See also: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/08/20/DNA-of-Chernobyl-animals-studied/UPI-36701282318781/ [upi.com]
Most plants will do fine - they tend to be more decentralized organisms - it doesn't matter if half a tree is filled with tumours, the rest can go on living (you can often chop off part of a plant and grow that part into a new plant elsewhere).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @07:31AM
The reason Chernobyl is good for the environment is because it drove the humans away. The moral of the story is that our species is worse than radiation.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday January 20 2017, @08:09PM
I discovered Elena Filatova's documentary work some years ago. Tonight, I find references to her, but all the links seem to be dead. She even had her own website, with most of her work on it, but that seems to be gone.
I had no difficulty opening one of her pages:
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/spring2007.html [angelfire.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 21 2017, @12:53AM
Thanks. I'm half sure I tried that page yesterday, and it wouldn't load for me. But, I'm only half sure. I clicked your link, and the page opened immediately.
Likewise, youtube links are loading without any noticeable delay today. Yesterday I watched that litle spinning circle go round, and round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sJldE5TVIw&index=1&list=PLLFw32A1gQu0NoredIOxRGdVc6gJ2GQ-J [youtube.com]
The problem was most likely my own ISP - they are screwed up often.