What happens to the lives of birds, insects and plants in the radiation zones around Chernobyl and Fukushima?
Tim Mousseau is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. For 15 years he and his scientific collaborator Anders Moller from the University of Paris, Sud, have done research in the most contaminated areas of Chernobyl. When Fukushima Daiichi exploded they began field work there as well. They study birds, insects, microbes, and plants at over 1,000 sites, creating the most diligent inventories of each study area and returning year after year. They found significantly increased rates of genetic damage in proportion to the level of exposure to radioactive contaminants.
This is an update given on September 2, 2015, at Point Reyes Station, California. Programmers at the radio station KWMR and the Ecological Options Network, EON, in Bolinas had invited him to give a talk.
Credit:
Many thanks to Bing Gong and Mary Beth Brangan for the recording. The full audio file is on http://postcarbon.podomatic.com/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)
