Socialist Environmental Disasters

Early reports after the Soviet nuclear accident at Chernobyl estimated radiation deaths at 10,000 to 100,000 people. But a UN report released recently put the actual death toll at 50 people and estimates that around 4000 - 9000 people will eventually die. [1]

The hype around environmentalist predictions of disaster has caused actual suffering:

• "There has been real suffering, particularly among the 330,000 people who were relocated after the accident. About that there is no doubt. But, for the five million people living in affected regions who are designated as Chernobyl 'victims,' radiation has had no discernable impact on physical health. Where a clear impact has been found is mental health. Fear of radiation, it seems, poses a far more potent health threat than does radiation itself. Symptoms of stress are rampant, and many residents of affected areas firmly believe themselves to be condemned by radiation to ill health and early death." [2]

See also

• Aral Sea
• Chernobyl
• Novaya Zemlya, "the most polluted place on earth" [[3]

Links

• Effects of Chernobyl Less than Expected
• Chernobyl: The 20-Year Anniversary - Worldpress.org - April 27, 2006]
• N Korea floods 'kill hundreds', Decades of deforestation to procure firewood caused by the impovershment of North Korea's population in pursuit of socialist policies results in flooding that kill hundreds. aljazeera.net
• Addressing Environmental Degradation, Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs May 6, 2004. "The natural environment has suffered degradation as a result of the harmful policies stemming from a Soviet-style economic system. Cuba faces degraded soil, old and decaying water and sanitation infrastructure, wildlife habitat destruction, and salt water intrusion into its fresh water supplies."