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Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone
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About Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom: Life In The Dead Zone
Product Description After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear explosion in Ukraine, scientists believed radiation had created a vast and barren wasteland in which life could never resurface. But the Dead Zone, as the contaminated area is known, doesn't look dead at all. In fact, wildlife seems to be thriving there. The Zone is home to beetles, swallows, catfish, mice, voles, otters, beavers, wild boar, foxes, lynx, deer, moose―even brown bears and wolves. Yet the animals in the Zone are not quite what you'd expect. Every single one of them is radioactive. In Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom, you'll meet the international scientists investigating the Zone's wildlife and trying to answer difficult questions: Have some animals adapted to living with radiation? Or is the radioactive environment harming them in ways we can't see or that will only show up in future generations? Learn more about the fascinating ongoing research―and the debates that surround the findings―in one of the most dangerous places on Earth. From School Library Journal Gr 5–8—In April 1986, Reactor Number 4 in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, emitting a flood of radioactive material that devastated the surrounding countryside. The residual radioactivity permeating soil, water, plants and animals led to the creation of a miles-wide Exclusion Zone closed to human residents and dubbed the Dead Zone by the press, the general public, and scientists alike. Scientists have continued to study the ecology of this site during the intervening years, and Johnson's lucid text describes their methods and findings in this chunk of land on the border between the Ukraine and Belarus. She has read their written reports and consulted scientists in the field to determine long-term effects on local wildlife after almost 30 years of exposure to varying doses of radioactivity. While some animals and plants appear to have been adversely affected, a large number of species seem to be coping relatively untouched. Even some former human residents (mostly elderly women) have returned to small hamlets and farms on the edge of the Zone, and poachers appear to be active in the area as well. (Other humans, massively exposed at the time of the explosion, have not fared so well.) The readable text is interspersed with dark red sidebars on such topics as how the researchers maintain safety in hot zones, the resistance of some plants to effects of long-term radiation, and reports of the damage suffered by human evacuees from the contaminated zone. Small color photos and maps provide visual evidence and geographical information. A final chapter reports on the tsunami-driven nuclear failure in the 2011 Fukushima disaster and ponders the future for similar "accidents." Thought-provoking.—Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Review "The Chernobyl disaster occurred over 25 years ago, and to today's students, that's ancient history! 28 years later there are still mysteries to solve and changes to explain. Johnson does a thorough job recounting the events, and also in explaining how scientists are investigating the effects of massive radiation on the wildlife remaining in the area. It was a picture of Przewalski's horses, released into the Dead Zone by scientists in hopes of increasing their numbers that first caught Johnson's attention. She further explains how the radiated area has become a sort of nature preserve for mammals, insects, birds, and plants, and how scientists regularly visit, observe, and study the area and how its inhabitants are affected. The reader is provided with plenty of information, pictures, notes, and more to further extend their study of nuclear power."―School Library Connection, Journal "To the surprise of many, some wildlife flourishes in Chernobyl, Ukraine, more than 25 years after the explosion at the nuclear power plant there. After opening with a background chapter describing the 1986 disaster, evacuation and cleanup efforts, Johnson goes
