Chernobyl -- Wildlife Refuge

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

I'll just leave this here with the comment that this is what I consider genuinely good news for the planet and leave you to chew on the accident all you like.

https://theconversation.com/chernobyl-has-become-a-refuge-for-wildlife-33-years-after-the-nuclear-accident-116303

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Chernobyl was not as serious a disaster as many thought, because of the timing: it took place during the Spring rains.  Such of the radioactive material was rapidly washed off the buildings and streets and into the creeks, where dilution did its work.  That aspect of the accident has not been given much weight, if any at all, by the anti-nuke forces.  Indeed, some small number of residents in that city actually moved back that Fall, simply because they had no other lace to live.  The Moscow government of the Soviet Union looked upon Ukrainians with some derision, and did not exactly do a lot for the dispossessed.  So those moving back realistically did not have that many choices. 

I predict the big winner of the Exclusion will be the wild boar, a highly adaptive creature that is likely to again dominate much  of Eastern Europe.  In particular, the boar will re-establish itself in East Germany as the place depopulates.  You want to be careful around boar; they will charge you and kill you.  They do not exactly make good pets!