Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl

I have put off reading "Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl" in part because with all the other bad news we are subjected to, I wanted to avoid a real downer. However once I started reading the book I could not put it down. Mary Mycio has captured both the despair (of which I was afraid) and the hope (in which I had difficulty believing) of the Chernobyl disaster. The name "Wormwood Forest" comes from the close relative of true wormwood that is one of the characteristic plants of the Chernobyl forest. Certainly the horror of the melted power plant core and the pockets of high radiation levels present still hangs over the human inhabitants of "the Zone," as the area within a 30 km circle of the reactor is known, is palpable enough. This is especially so given the huge amount of human suffering engendered by the explosion, both in direct death by radiation for the firefighters to the increase of thyroid cancer in children. Still, as Mycio points out so eloquently, the worst predictions did not materialize and the Zone has become a wildlife (admittedly radioactive wildlife!) bonanza. Certainly selection for resistance to radiation took a terrible toll among the local mammals, birds, plants, and others. Sill the existence and even flourishing of the local biota is a surprising and hopeful development. Mycio has, in my opinion, done a very good job of describing this ambiguous result. Her style of writing is in fact very powerful in telling the story of Chernobyl. It is obvious that no one (other than perhaps James Lovelock) would want to recreate "the Zone" in other localities on the planet and that the failure of the reactor is in every sense a cautionary tale. Until we can find some way to deal with the health effects to Uranium miners, the possibilities and consequences of failure in reactors, and the difficulties of dealing with radioactive waste, we have to look at nuclear power as a two-edged sword. On the other hand such countries as France have managed to handle the reactor construction and operation with few problems. However, they still have not addressed the first and last problems. Another problem in an age of terrorism is the security of the nuclear materials present. In my view nuclear power is only a short term solution at best. The flourishing of wildlife around the reactor, especially mammals and birds- which are thought to be more susceptible to radiation damage- was surprising. However, it was already known that some lower organisms not killed immediately by the fireball, extreme radiation and shock wave of a nuclear explosion could rebound to higher numbers than before. Darkling beetles did so after explosions of bombs at the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada. In the process of describing the results of the Chernobyl explosion Mycio has shown us that in reality humans are more dangerous to other life forms, especially vertebrates, than is radiation! Read this book! It clears away the fog and lets us confront

Mary Mycio keeps returning to this great irony: Out of the worst man-caused disaster of the 20th century springs a stunning natural ecosystem. Mary knows Chernobyl like few others. She has spent a significant portion of her life studying the accident and its aftermath. She has spent many days tromping through the woods in the Exclusion Zone. Her writing is fluid and never bombastic. A readable, interesting book hands you the chance to understand Chernobyl, and catch a glimpse of the awesome recuperative powers of nature.

I came across this book when I made friends with someone from the Ukraine... the book grew and grew on me as I read it; I did not realize until towards the end that the author had deftly taken us through the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, and then through a gestalt of the land and people. (I like the casual way she would check her radiation meter to see how much radiation she was getting at a given pond, bog or town). So we kind of weave our way through the history, then the air, plants, ground, water,animals, people, and towns affected by Chernobyl. There's a lot of science but Mary Mycio makes you feel like, hey, you too understand all the bits and pieces about leftover radiation. So two things happen as you read the book; you feel like are in the car with her and her guides. And then to you see how nature has come back in an awesome way and taken over what is still a nuclear wasteland.(The wildlife has thrived and rebounded since people are gone from their radioactive world). Amazing book; all science majors should read this!

Displaying remarkable courage, Mary Mycio set out to examine what has become of that forbidden, virtually unpeopled realm around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, one of the greatest ecological catastrophes of modern times. Her findings are surprising and intriguing, and will keep readers turning pages at night. A fascinating tale!

There is a popular song in Ukrainian Folk culture, "Two Colors". Black, that is sadness and Red that is joy. These two colors often are used in the famous Ukrainian Embroidered shirts and blouses. My reading of Mary Mycio's fabulous book, "Wormwood Forest" reminded me of this song. There is so much pain in this book, yet there is joy at coming to know some truths about a modern day cover-up. Mycio writes about complicated technical things regarding nuclear energy and the horrible accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine in such away that you don't need to have a scientific background to understand the picture. Yet, those with a scientific background will find this book informative. Want to find out what happened at Chernobyl, and what's happening now - then read this book!