What Happens to Wildlife After Nuclear Disaster

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Credits:
Writer/Narrator: Stephanie Sammann
Writer: Lorraine Boissoneault
Editor: Dylan Hennessy (www.behance.net/dylanhennessy1)
Illustrator/Animator: Kirtan Patel (kpatart.com/illustrations)
Animator: Mike Ridolfi (www.moboxgraphics.com/)
Sound: Graham Haerther (haerther.net)
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster ( / forgottentowel )
Producer: Brian McManus (watchnebula.com/realengineering)
REFERENCES
[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_...
[2] web.archive.org/web/201709121...
[3] www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets...
[4] stacks.stanford.edu/file/drui...
[5] www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets...
[6] www.commonsnews.org/issue/113...
[7] web.archive.org/web/201310291...
[8] royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
[9] inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLC...
[10] academic.oup.com/jhered/artic...
[11] royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
[12] onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
[13] www.worldwildlife.org/stories...
[14] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25852....
[15] sci-hub.ee/10.1016/j.envint.2...
[16] www.sciencedirect.com/science...
[17] aacrjournals.org/cancerres/ar...

[@user-yn4xc8kt3i]

My dad was hired to run a bioremediation effort on Johnston atole in the early 2000s. Him and his crew realized the radiation contamination was higher than officially recognized. He died of agressively spreading brain tumors within a year of staying on the atole. He was 39. It was later discovered that the US govt knew the radiation levels were dangerous, but covered it up. RIP dad.

[@MistaGSpecialEducation]

this is why you should literally never trust the government, you never know what they don’t show you

[@ChappyMonster]

aw man, im really sorry for your loss

[@trinomial-nomenclature]

It's awful how people study hard and become so skilled in their field that they're asked to run something of this scale, a highly educated and dedicated person and to have this amazing opportunity to help the oceans. Only for the government to lie/omit crucial information that could kill you in a horrific manner because now, now, we can't have the government look bad 😒. I am so sorry for your loss, such a preventable loss for such a brilliant man.

[@Thugshaker_thequaker]

I am so sorry for your loss, that is awful.

[@sgh2146]

i understand not publicly recognizing that the radiation levels were so high but not even internally for the people cleaning up??? they essentialy sent that crew to death it is infuriating

[@EmuEmuchu]

SpongeBob transformed from a sea sponge to cleaning sponge

[@dominantasmr578]

I like what you did there

[@mr.badtouch1482]

Actually he transformed from a profilatic sponge to a sea sponge to a cleaning spong

[@piyushsahurkar9362]

Godzilla transformed from an iguana to an atomic monster

[@nathanlevesque7812]

@@mr.badtouch1482 =_=

[@dammdaniel9953]

Monkey transform into 🙎🏿‍♂️

[@blender_wiki]

Conclusions : humans are more dangerous than any nuclear fallout

[@someoneelse5505]

>we are the real monsters :O

[@durratulaishah3703]

Not surprised honestly

[@sheilaolfieway1885]

shows that we need to be more conservative when we hunt non-food animals..

[@CountCocofang]

There is a reason humanity is considered the sixth mass extinction.

[@Bahador.B]

Nuclear fallout comes from humanity, so your ideology is void.

[@jasepoag8930]

Funny that we in the reef aquarium hobby often struggle to grow coral, but it was growing well in a nuclear wasteland.

[@szbnahl]

Clearly you need to add more plutonium to the tank.

[@hersonissoswolf3699]

it's wastesea, not wasteland

[@infinitemonkey917]

One species is thriving. Many others died off.

[@jasepoag8930]

@@szbnahl some people do dose strontium. Pretty much the same, right?

[@leandersearle5094]

Ouch.

[@TJ-vh2ps]

The wolves that received more radiation may have less cancer because of survivorship bias. Perhaps in the high-radiation group, the wolves that were more susceptible to radiation died, while the ones that survived were more resistant to radiation. In the lower-dose wolves, the ones more susceptible to radiation may have survived, but developed cancer. Just speculating wildly, Joan Calamezzo style!

[@abyssstrider2547]

Yeah that's how natural selection works. And why marine animals have special genetic sequences that allow them to have superior regeneration.

[@eaar]

You might be right, but wed have to see the sampling methods. Whether or not or how well they sampled the populations before the disaster would be a big factor to that

[@xavier4519]

​@@abyssstrider2547i don't see how it's natural selection when to my knowledge cancer susceptibility is not genetically passed, fe i wouldn't hang on to the fact my grandparents smoked and didn't develop cancer as a sign i wouldn't

[@mitsunoseikaku2597]

We often underestimate the resiliency of life, I mean we got organisms literally living besides active volcanoes and thrive even more after an eruption (its a type of snail) and then there's the tardegrade that can suvive the vacum of space with radiation and all

[@YarPirates-vy7iv]

Is that the snail with an iron shell? It's metal af.

[@NeuroRadX]

Yeah, we humans just lack the insight that we are first, a part of nature, and second, a comparatively fragile one at that. Sure, animal and plant species die out all the time, due to human activities or other factors, but only when we ourselves feel the impact of well... nuclear bombs and accidents, do we start to investigate and question it. If, hopefully, we do no Fallout ourselves in a few decades, climate change will be hard enough on humanity as a whole. Humans do not have the capability to quickly evolve for survival in different conditions over just a few generations. Nature will be here in a few 10000 years, humans very likely won't...

[@SavageDragon999]

A nuclear apocalypses might not be the end of humanity as depicted in movies tbh. Yes it might wipe out 95% of all humans, but those that actually survive by natural selection will have a highly resiliency towards radiation and cancer and will pass that on to their offsprings. Within 500 years, which, frankly, is a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things, humanity will emerge even more resilient than before.

[@honor9lite1337]

​Comparing it with an AI apocalypse, then humanity would be extinct. @@SavageDragon999

[@thenaiam]

Life..uh.. You know the rest.

[@aliendribble023]

What an amazing, well written, and non-dramatized analysis on the subject. Too many channels would try to look for the most shocking evidence, or the most sensationalist perspective on this discussion, but I really enjoyed how you pointed out the many pros, along with cons that come with such a contentious topic.

[@HissoriRenda]

Real science baby!

[@Poolooloo7]

This whole channel has that, it’s great.

[@jamesdietz29]

This makes me curious about the insect life in and around these radiation exclusion zones.

[@Tribrid-zv3nq]

Some organisms would adapt to the radiation in the atmosphere. Just not us

[@jamesdietz29]

@@Tribrid-zv3nq Of course, but I'd like to actually see some of these "adaptations" and their impact on the insect's ability to thrive and on the environment it's self. Maybe I'll Google it and see what turns up.

[@coinisinorbit]

funnily enough most of the insects we encounter in fallout new vegas are man made, from the cazadors to the night stalkers all are made from gene splicing their mutated genomes

[@yanickpunter324]

Google for bugs in Chernobyl, you'll see. They are disfigured.

[@V77710]

​@@Tribrid-zv3nqperhaps humans are not so adept at rapid evolution..or its karma since we are the ones who caused the mess

[@ossiantansley6583]

Please dont forget the human cost of the Marshall island nuclear tests. Of the Islanders who were displaced, and those affected by the fallout. Levels of cancer and birth defects were extremely elevated for generations. Rare earth just made a very good video series about these people, highly recommend.

[@officialdcshepard]

This is also on Nebula! I am a LIFETIME member because there’s just such a breadth of creators that are so knowledgeable. And to be honest they have contributed to my single favorite best nonfiction library in streaming. Examples include Jet Lag The Game, LegalEagle, RealTimeHistory, Tale Foundry, Wendover…

[@notfunny3397]

A little sad they didn't talk much about the human communities affected by the US nuclear tests. There used to be indigenous people living bear bikini atoll, who had their Islands absolutely covered in radioactive dust. Rare Earth has a series on them.

[@BPBomber]

Wolves naturally selecting for immunity to radiation mutations. Cool.

[@cooltubes547]

“So let us now take our vengeance on this murderous ocean” -people who detonated castle bravo probably

[@EmuQuest]

I have become death destroyer of aquatic life

[@markedis5902]

The world will recover, humans not so much. Nature finds a way.

[@LayllasLocker]

Humans are also part of the nature. They would recover as well.

[@catfission]

A lot of people mistakenly assume that dogs in the Chernobyl exclusion zone suffer from mutations because of teratogenesis from radiation exposure. The real cause of deformities in that population is severe inbreeding. Those little guys have an *exceptionally* shallow gene pool 😅.

[@thegunslinger1363]

Look up Stanislav Petrov and Vasily Arkhipov. Those men saved humanity.

[@yamahamotocrosskid]

Just did, holy crap I wonder how many other times the world has come so close to an end

[@mattheide2775]

I had forgotten these brave men. Thank you.

[@patrickblanchette4337]

8:49 This bit sums up Moira’s observations in Fallout 3 perfectly!😊

[@manifoldcypher760]

Good thing she had the lone wanderer to use as a Guinea pig. Sorry, I meant study.

[@jakepockets4977]

Lmfao, haven't gotten through the rest of the video... Just gotta point out a potentially accidental pun. "After the dust settles" was such an apt thing to say when considering the Elephant's Foot dust is some of the most dangerous radioactive whoopsiedoodles we've ever created as human beings. Breathe a couple of those dust particles in and you're gonna have a bad time.

[@Flt.Hawkeye]

Breathe in enoght and your Bad time ends faster

[@drakob]

I'm actually marshallese this just hit me in the feels

[@joesaiditstrue]

it's like you know exactly what content I wanna watch

[@RobertHenderson.poopiebear]

So glad you followed your creative fire and, created nebula! I'm DEFINITELY going to subscribe! I love your work and wish you nothing but continued success.

[@Randomlyme]

life always finds a way

[@MrApplebite100]

Love your channel ❤

[@gekkiebekkie1000]

This was very interesting to other videos previously! I really would like to see more videos on the effect of human behavriour and how nature deal with it. Very good video and so different from the rest so far.

[@Dellvmnyam]

1:12 that sign says "Caution, mines" and has nothing to do with the radioactive pollution but rather with ongoing russian invasion in Ukraine

[@MrKZee]

+1 also, I couldn't find a sign with text - only symbol, But for anyone who is interested, it should say "Обережно радіоактивність"

[@MrKZee]

And a side fact that Chernobyl actually was a military zone before the war so in theory there could have been some mines, and the modern sign for mines is actually red square, because it's often installed in "green" places, and the black sign will not be visible. So in theory it could be in Chernobyl, also there are a lot of shots from Chernobyl, So my theory is someone made this photo in Chernobyl and the person who picked it doesn't know Ukrainian language to understand that it's unrelated.

[@MrKZee]

Checked it again.. I think you are 100% right: the sign is made by using spray paint and stencil - not a soviet era thing and was done because supplying mines sign is not very important. In my defence, before the invasion i've seen a lot of red signs "HALT! MINES!".

[@gamingwizard1609]

Nuclear fallouts pretty scary huh

[@itzhexen0]

Not really.

[@villager736]

@@itzhexen0 I mean if it's bad enough, then yeah..

[@mike_nolan]

Eh...

[@RobertHenderson.poopiebear]

Definitely F**KING SCARY! What's REALLY SCARY though is that for four years DONALD GUMP had control and, could have ordered a test and/or an attack.... At almost ANY time! Unbelievable!

[@manifoldcypher760]

Ask the people exposed to fallout.

[@b12-]

you just got one new sub

[@EmilyJelassi]

Fascinating video!! 😮😊❤ I completely agree.. the streaming giants are incredibly frustrating and annoying! I love your videos. I truly wish I could afford to support you on Nebula... but I always watch your videos here on KZbin 😊❤

[@paddor]

Great timing.

[@AryanKumar-ng7py]

I love your voice and content. ❤

[@rickshawwheelchair]

I have Nebula again. Sad that your co-workers never get any air time until now for 2 seconds😅 Anyway, keep up the good work and I've watched all your Nebula videos, can't wait for more! I studied geology at the University of Kansas but didn't graduate, though it gives me a strong background. I like how you only spend one minute with the basics i already know and then the last 95% is new fun facts i never heard of!

[@LesEllen]

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched... but are felt in the heart.

[@ruththinkingoutside.707]

Okay.. @19:31 you sold me on the paleo archeology.. It’s my FAVORITE history phase to binge in any way.. So.. Now I’ll have to see about nebula.. even though I still don’t have a functioning television or computer 😂..

[@ray4237]

I love these videos

[@theprecipiceofreason]

I'm glad that animals can somewhat withstand our contaminants. I'm sad that the conclusion appears that we are destined to destroy ourselves, in particular.

[@MrRaposaum]

I got a question. Does radioactivity poisoning, assuming it doesn't kill or debilitate the animal too much, affect their perceived behavior in a critical way? Such as... would those animals be more likely to be aggressive under these effects? For example, we know that some mammal predators, such as wolves or bears, would only attack humans (unprovoked) in specific situations. Would the effects of radioactive poisoning on their brain affect that?

[@donjoey22]

great video

[@AlvaCoffey]

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.

[@apexqc04]

For the coral reefs could it be that some forms of coral arrive and settle first while others still need time to arrive and recover, like the way flesh flies arrive at a cadaver in a specific sequence, and it's just that we are observing these reefs part way through the process?

[@artawhirler]

Excellent video as always! Thanks!

[@FutureAIDev2015]

3:51 that number is off by three orders of magnitude by the way

[@gibdopaminepls]

Just a heads up Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not, in fact, the only bombs dropped on humans. (I'm on 4:30 so if you mention this in the video later, my bad) While unintentional, the Castle Bravo bomb did affect a lot of pacific islanders, due to it being bigger than expected, which were then effectively quarantined and treated as lab rats by the US to study radiation. One scientist remarked "They're more like us than the mice" when asked about it, which paints the picture of how they saw these pacific islanders. If you're interested, a few days back Evan from Rare Earth made a great video of the people of Rongelap Atoll, which were the most affected: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIfPoXdup5yaotE

[@AlexCFaulkner]

How is the frog example quick evolution? Wouldn't that just be rapid natural selection?

[@John_Smith_86]

I mean, it is true, isn't it? The islanders are more similar to Americans than mice are

[@elpito9326]

​@@John_Smith_86 at the time, they were part of the US (or US-controlled territory). So, politically, they were Americans

[@John_Smith_86]

@@elpito9326 Right. Politically

[@elpito9326]

@@John_Smith_86 what are you trying to say?

[@TheFerdi265]

The fact about the rapid evolution of the frogs around Chernobyl is really interesting!

[@m1racul0us1yflare14]

One of the most if not the highest in ranking of human's *dangerous/nature threatening* creations 😥

[@calebbrown6735]

The black sturgeon found on deadliest catch was crazy.

[@ob_dowboosh]

1:13 is a war remnant because it says "CAUTION MINES" in Ukrainian. 🇷🇺 soldiers were in the Chornobyl Zone. Some of them were told to dig in the "Red forest" area.

[@emom358]

Kyle Hill has an excellent video series about Chernobyl and radiation.

[@alexandrdanko2619]

Chornobyl Red Forest is not around exploded plant, it’s just small line (stripe) on north-west from plant, where wind brought huge part of radioactive particles

[@gildedbear5355]

Not too lessen the impact, or danger, of fallout but just because I've been playing Fallout and because I use levity to deal with stress: Crawl out through the fallout baby!

[@inumber6]

What app or software it's used to create animations like that at 9:49 ?

[@zachb9026]

Correction at 15:30 - 100 mGy is the absolute minimum level at which we can see cancer caused by radiation in humans. And even at that level, it increase your risk of cancer by about 1 in 1000 over the course of your life. So instead of having a 40% chance of cancer induction during your life, you'll have a 40.1% chance of cancer induction. So the statement that "Its generally established that exposure of over 100 mGy of radiation in human will cause cancer" is misleading at best. It generally takes a lot more radiation than that to cause cancer on average.

[@chrixmarx]

the test on bikini atoll got humans too. they all die because of nuclear fallout. lets not forget then.

[@aldenconsolver3428]

At 16:15 you discuss a gene appearing in a larger number in the wolf population. Is this the P53 tumor suppressor protein gene? Human beings carry one of these genes (elephants carry 20) and its failure is usually associated with tumors. Where could I look into this?

[@AvalanchCXVII]

3:02 Ivy Mike was the first fusion device.

[@Strype13]

[1:53] There's an extremely tiny bug crawling around in very close proximity to that frog's eyeball and I hate everything about it.

[@uccaroo9468]

03:45 i do believe water can only get up to 100°C before it becomes it's gas format known as steam

[@tayron6329]

The thought of Usain Bolt could actually out run the blastwaves by 20 meters in t=10sec is just insane

[@user-rx1om7rs3b]

If he could sprint that long with his record speed. But because of the distance and the lack of preparation from his part would make it impossible. But otherwise impressive.

[@MagStone-cf9qm]

Fear grows in darkness; if you think theres a bogeyman around, turn on the light.

[@kortjurgensmeyer5120]

15:08 that wolf in the back looks a little special

[@whiskeycan529]

Moon moon!

[@Delirium132231]

1:13 the sign says: "Caution. Mines".

[@erikadlloyd5586]

Those wolf pups are so adorable 🥰

[@abyssaljam441]

People are going to be really confused when finding this in 2080...

[@AyoBodee]

Stg😂

[@JuliusBessemer]

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

[@blindedbliss]

19:15 ~ Paleolithic Archaeology?

[@alexanderwim3139]

Interesting video, thank you for such cool content. By the way, the correct spelling of the city is "Chornobyl", not "Chernobyl", because it's the Ukrainian city "Чорнобиль".

[@flyingark173]

Have you ever done a video about cat eyes? I noticed that they seem to have a less responsive pupil and uses vertical "lids" to restrict the light, which makes sense. However, I've noticed that when my 8 month old kitten is in my brightly lit bedroom, he will stare are me with little veritcal slits, but if I entice him to attack my hand playfully, it seems that as soon as he decides to attack these lids open up and his eyes are almost completely black with just a sliver of green around them. I wonder why, and does a cats vision change from normal mode to hunt mode? What is the biology behind that?

[@giuliomagri8910]

3:51blast waves travelled at 8m/s??? Isn't It a bit too slow?

[@malthegidius6074]

Was thinking the same thing. I suspect there should be a “kilo” in there.

[@sarkozygaming3629]

Americans trying use the metric system will always be funny

[@MaxDiscere]

Your reference R14 doesn't point to a wolf related study, but something from Sudan. Please correct that I wanna read into it

[@Cornish_Co]

3:39 "Surface seawater temperatures reached 55,000°C." How is this possible?

[@raybod1775]

Blast wave pressure

[@Cornish_Co]

@@raybod1775 Makes sense. Thanks

[@RichardWilliams2015]

At the time scientists had no idea about the amplification effect of lithium-oxide metals used in the CASTLE BRAVO shots casing. It basically under goes a process where itself turns into fissile material that adds to the yield by releasing what I like to call an "assload of nuetrons". Modern nuclear weapons are said to have blast temperatures that momentarily rival the core of the sun in temperature.

[@Flt.Hawkeye]

​@RichardWilliams2015 they get much hotter a thing many people seem to overestimate is our sun temperature. The Fusion in the sun happens due to the sheer pressure of gravity and a smaller amount of heat. Sure the sun is hot. But we can easily Beat this temperature by Factors of 10.

[@RichardWilliams2015]

@@Flt.Hawkeye exactly! The hottest temperatures so far have been generated by CERN smacking sub atomic particles together like in the trillions of billions degrees C

[@brians9182]

There's a nuclear reactor near-by my home town, maybe an hours drive. There's rumors of crickets that bite and other things.

[@RenoReborn]

The fallout from nuclear bombs is relatively short lived and disperses pretty quickly, life would recover insanely quickly like nothing happened within a few decades. Nuclear fallout from reactor meltdowns however, that's a much different story.

[@user-rx1om7rs3b]

Carpet bombing being not literal but figurative as carpet bombing a whole country by destroying all major cities and military installations.

[@Nawenn]

Actually, castle Bravo was not the first fusion warhead tested, that title would go to Ivy Mike.

[@1st1anarkissed]

"Aggressively selecting for" can also be understood as "all the other variants died of cancer."

[@RichardIresonMusician]

Not sure, but wasn't Ivy Mike the first thermonuclear bomb? Castle Bravo was the largest the US detonated I believe.

[@MrKZee]

Fun fact: 1:17 - it's from 🇺🇦Chernobyl and says "let the atom be the worker, not the soldier" "

[@fennten8338]

God damn, what a video ❤

[@user-AADZ]

[Intro: SpongeBob] You call it Bikini Atoll We call it Bikini Bottom The post World War nuclear testing It changed all of our atoms Mutated marine wildlife I was cursed to walk and talk And now I'm making my way through town To line some bodies in chalk 🗣️🔥🔥🔥

[@V77710]

That one mutated dog broke my heart. Other than its head it was just tangled mess.

[@SmittenandBitten]

The fact that we could do this to our precious earth..... Is nuts

[@RokStembergar]

7:44 is 'I'm fhhheiring my lazereer!!' meme 😅

[@opmacace523]

3:50 i think Blast waves was 8 km/second

[@tatsuyas.drakensang4826]

I like to try and answer video titles that are questions mentally and see if my answer matches the conclusion of the video. For this time my guess is: They mostly die LOL. Mutations caused by radiation often times are detrimental, catastrophic genetic errors that cause short lived and flawed specimens. I think radiation also usually makes things sterile.

[@jibran6299]

it would be nice if you make a video on monsterverse

[@kingdrew8888]

I believe another thing to consider is the general lifespan of whatever creature is being studied. Some cancers take a while to propagate, and to show their true colors

[@jingleball2427]

Rapid evolution is blowing my mind that's so cool. I wish i could show people that "don't believe in the 'theory' of evolution".

[@yurionabike2184]

4:55 that blue flash

[@pryncecharming2133]

Radiation proof wolves. So cool.

[@WinstonNicholas-oe2tk]

We choose our destiny in the way we treat others.

[@henrya3530]

Over the past 30 years I've read several reports on studies concerning the biological effects of the Chernobyl disaster on wildlife in the Exclusion Zone. The studies on frogs and other amphibians in the CEZ produced some interesting conclusions that are not mentioned in this video. Mutations happen all the time in nature. Usually a mutated animal will be at a disadvantage in some way and thus more likely to be eaten by a predator. Researchers found the rates for mutations in frogs in the CEZ had remained unchanged since before the disaster but in the absence of predators* more of the mutations survived there producing further generations. In ecosystems outside the CEZ where predator numbers are unaffected the different coloured frogs do not thrive. This demonstrates that the mutation does not give the frogs an inherent advantage. So radiation indirectly allowed the frogs to survive but did not necessarily cause them to mutate. * In this case anything that eats frogspawn, tadpoles, or frogs.

[@gilsthyname256]

I like how people are looking at fallout more especially since it’s just an alternate timeline of are world if we had continued war and used nuclear power

[@norincurcan8827]

This planet will rejoice when we're gone 🤷‍♂️

[@jessedawg4693]

You are doing fallout love it!!!

[@coinisinorbit]

the fallout tv show really bringing my favorite genre into mainstream

[@UQRXD]

Just wait till the Dune earthworm comes out of the ground. You ain't seen nothing yet.

[@benhuston310]

You did NOT see the graphite because it was NOT THERE!

[@Pock4855]

I will try the nebula

[@MegaMark0000]

1:25 you telling me thats how that thing is supposed to look?

[@mcz9733]

Castle Bravo wasn't the first H-bomb. That was Ivy Mike.

[@cheezit2183]

Glad I wasn't crazy lol

[@keegandecker4080]

Lines up with the dates of the UFO craze

[@louischarley6775]

You said the blast waves travel at 8m/s, why isn't it 300 I e. Speed of sound?

[@AfraByron]

We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.