Chernobyl’s Wildlife - Hey! Article

 Cidette Rice

Mr. Roddy, Mr. Zhou

GPHC A

10/11/2020


Chernobyl’s Wildlife


At approximately 1:23 am on April 26th 1986, the nuclear power plant Chernobyl of Soviet Ukraine failed to perform a safety test that ultimately resulted in the combustion of their 4th reactor. The response of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic (or the Ukrainian SSR for short) was slow and doubtful, albeit panicked. While not only being the first nuclear disaster recorded in history, Chernobyl also takes the cake for being the most deadly, political, and poorly maintained. By this, I mean that Chernobyl, like many other nuclear reactors that could be seen in Northern Eurasia, was built cheaply, with the idea of quick power over safety. This was ultimately Chernobyl’s undoing. 

Meant to limit civilians from accessing Chernobyl or falling victim to it’s radiating effects, the Chernobyl exclusion zone was established. With Chernobyl at its heart, the Exclusion Zone is 1,004 square miles of uninhabited Belarusian and Ukrainian land. While unintentionally, this zone is becoming a sanctuary for wildlife. It was believed that the exclusion zone would become a desert of life, both animate and inanimate. Directly following the nuclear disaster, a forest surrounding Chernobyl would come to be known as the ‘Red Forest’, since the radiation killed animals and plants, and turned the remaining tree’s leaves red. However, as time has gone on, the exclusion zone has proved the exact opposite. Animal species such as “...bears, bison, wolves, lynxes, Przewalski horses, and more than 200 bird species…” are flourishing in the absence of humans. Most species populations are said to be “stable and viable”, according to Nick Beresford of the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who led an observation project focusing on the Exclusion Zone. According to his research, the differences between Chernobyl wildlife and non-Chernobyl wildlife tend to be uncommon and non-threatening. For example, frogs in the exclusion zone are darker than frogs out of it, and birds have a higher rate of albinism. Overall, the animals of the Exclusion Zone are proving to be more durable than initially thought. 

What does this say about the human body? Why don’t we have the same amount of tolerance for radiation as other species do? I like to entertain the theory that we do have the same tolerance, but the symptoms manifest themselves differently, leading humans to seem more sensitive. Then again, humans have evolved as the apex predator not because we are durable, but because we’re intelligent. Our body doesn’t need to adapt to harsh living conditions if we use our heads to make clothing, build houses, and farm food. Our evolutionary strength does not come in the form of wings or gills, but a sharp mind that can make connections about the dangers of our world, and how to avoid them. The ability to pass on information through generations is also one of the human’s most powerful tools that few animals can harness. Humans can tell each other and their children to stay away from the Exclusion Zone because it is dangerous, but other species cannot. They have to rely on their instincts, and currently, their instincts are telling them 1,004 square miles of irradiated land is safe.


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