| View Larger Image | Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl | Hardcoverby Mary Mycio (Author)
| List Price: | $27.95 | | Price: | $18.45 | | You Save: | $9.50 (34%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Joseph Henry Press | | Page Count: | 276 Pages | | Publication Date: | August 29, 2005 | | Sales Rank: | 221,627st |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down, 135,000 people were evacuated. Almost twenty years later, the area remains a no-man’s land, with radiation too intense for people to live there safely. Amazingly, though, it is nevertheless home to a unique and extraordinary new ecosystem. When the explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor complex that fateful day, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the air, one of the world’s worst nightmares was realized. As the news gradually seeped out of the USSR and the extent of the disaster was confirmed, it became clear how horribly wrong things had gone. Dozens died – two from the explosion and many more from radiation illness over the following months – while scores of additional people became ill with acute radiation sickness. The prognosis for Chernobyl and its environs – succinctly dubbed the Zone of Alienation – was grim. But if fears of the Apocalypse and a lifeless, barren radioactive future have been constant companions of the nuclear age, twenty years later Chernobyl shows us a different view of the future. Not only have pockets of defiant local residents remained behind to survive and make a life in the Zone, the area surrounding Chernobyl has become Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary, a flourishing – at times unearthly – wilderness teeming with large animals, many of them members of rare and endangered species. Like the forests, fields, and swamps of their unexpectedly inviting habitat, both the people and the animals are all radioactive. Cesium-137 is packed in their muscles and strontium-90 in their bones. But quite astonishingly, they are also thriving. Donning dosimeter and protective gear, intrepid journalist Mary Mycio explored the world’s only radioactive wilderness to report on the long-term effects of the disaster. A vivid blend of reportage, popular science, and illuminating encounters that explode the myths of Chernobyl with facts that are at once beautiful and horrible, Wormwood Forest brings a remarkable land – and its people and animals – to life to tell a unique story of science, surprise, and suspense. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 7 reviews)
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A Hopeful Cautionary Tale by David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA)  5 Stars
August 16, 2009
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 both the real and imagined hazards of nuclear power.
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Irony Defined by Art King (Portland, OR USA) 5 Stars
October 28, 2008
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.
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Fascinating book that should be required for biology classes! by Mary Baechler 5 Stars
November 05, 2006
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!
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Informative, Entertaining, Well-Written by Michael Lee Parsons (Nashville, TN United States)  4 Stars
May 27, 2006
This book works on several levels. The initial premise is that the Chenobyl disaster did not create a barren wasteland, as we might have anticipated. Rather, the "Zone of Alienation", from which nearly all humans have been removed, has become a flourishing nature preserve. Working from that point, the author explores the disaster and its consequences from a number of perspectives. There is a discussion of the accident itself, of the initial efforts to deal with it, and then with the long term effects, not only upon the plants and animals of the Zone, but also upon people - who continue to work and even live inside the Zone.
The writing is clear, perhaps due to Ms. Mycio's journalistic background. It is also very engaging, because she is intensely interested in the subject, and shares the reasons for her interest with the reader. For those of us who will never have the opportunity to visit the Zone, this book is really the next best thing.
The author has a website which makes a terrific supplement to the book, with generous photo galleries organized according in parallel to the book: www.chernobyl.in.ua
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Disappointed. by Magdalena (USA)  2 Stars
April 12, 2006
The author's lackluster story-telling left me dizzy. There was no glue to hold together what should have been a phenomenal story---especially considering her background. And the attempt at explaining the math, physics, chemistry, and nuclear science was inept at best.
A shame.
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