How Instagram Ruined Chernobyl…Again.
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- Опубліковано 5 кві 2023
- In 2019, HBO’s “Chernobyl” mini-series exploded in popularity, directly causing a huge increase in tourism in and around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. But this wasn’t just another social media gold rush. It was dangerous. This [HALF-LIFE HISTORY] is the story from the inside.
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*Thanks for watching.* Some clarification to comments below -- when I talk about tourists interacting with one of the most contaminated objects, the Claw, I mean stuff like this: i.redd.it/1t612z84jbi41.jpg The people who do this aren't going to keel over and die, or even get ARS or anything like that (though 85mR/hr is not a tiny amount of radiation!), but they do likely get contaminated, and move that contamination around. It is a small risk, but it IS a health risk and potential hazard. That's my point. You shouldn't be able to do something demonstrably risky with uncontrolled contamination. It's not bungee jumping.
This is one of our last videos from Chernobyl, but it's no less impactful, I think. As for me...I'll be filming in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone later this month...
Stay safe, Atomi-chan!
I'm looking forward to it, and thank you for what you do.
I have loved following this series. Chernobal and like it are a hyperfication for me. Being able to see it from your point of view as been amazing. As I was sitting here watching g the people 8n the background act in such an un safe way confuses me greatly. Just because you can't see something doesn't make it any less dangerous. Thank you for all your hard work.
Lost to the zone, before they even realizing it. Darwin award used to be a joke, but now its ironic documentaries about natural selection...
hey Kyle, random question, hope you can answer it: in the last few episodes of the podcast "skeptics guide to the universe" they've mentioned a certain Kyle Hill submitting answers for the segment "who's that noisy". Is that you? (I imagined it could be, since it is a science podcast). Thanks!
Also, great video as always!
Setting up fake skeletons and scenarios to "increase fright factor" while simultaneously ignoring the actual danger of radiation is somehow the most human thing I've heard of.
"cancer, radiation sickness, premature death etc naa those idiots aren't smart enough to fear that, we need something they can see... ah this helmet and a pile of dear bones, that's gonna scare them." - some people appently
@@crazydinosaur8945 and they are completely correct in assuming the tourists' level of intelligence
If i'm going to a place famous for a reactor meltdown and having to be abandoned due to the radiation exposure the place experienced the last thing i'm going to do in that place is touch things, move them, or take them with me.
Then again I might be stupid but i'm not an idiot.
Theres this channel of a whole group of people larping as Renaissance painters who use modern storebought paint and add all sorts of chemicals to the paint to make it flow an look like handmade paints, this reminds me of that
Leaving piles of “spooky” bones around in such manners is about as insincere and disrespectful as if someone was to try an increase the “fright and horror” factor of the now memorial Auschwitz concentration camp. It’s just wrong both for respect and historical preservation sake.
Just imagine being on a plane, not knowing that someone on your flight has a highly radioactive object from chernobyl in their carry on luggage. Imagine being a kid living in the same house as that item in the closet by your room and getting cancer and never knowing that it could be linked to something as vain and arrogant as a stolen item from a disaster site where people lost everything. It’s so disgusting.
Idk bro, moskals digging trenches in the Red Forest and driving tanks to swirl up radioactive dust sounds worse than a few influencers.
gonna be hilarious if that comes into the news.
I'm going to need a dosimeter in the next smart watch I buy. :C
@@natowaveenjoyer9862 what does that have to do with their comment at all?
Its not a competition lol, both are really shitty
Almost as disgusting as this comment
I went to Chernobyl in 2017, I was too scared of radiation poisoning that I never took off my plastic hazmat suit and respirator. The tour guide saw this and said "this man takes the danger seriously"
I wouldn't even go. You're still more balsy than me! In a couple ways, I'm sure, but you get the point
i wouldnt go i wont take the risk i live like a thousand km away from chernobyl
I only lived about 5 kilometers from that place as a kid. I'd definitely visit the history of my people
Eh I went and nothing bad happened to me. You aren’t going to die from just touching a rock or random object. Even if you take it home, you aren’t just going to get cancer because it sits on your shelf or in a display case. But if you were to say be around it for long periods of time every day like put it next to your bed on a nightstand then sure you could in theory get cancer or some genetic damage over the course of a decade.
@@lawrencetalbot8346 don't be so sure of yourself. There are cases of people developing radiation poisoning within data of being near objects wrapped in clothing, only having been close to the clothing and gotten sick.
These things are nothing to sneer at.
The Stalkers that clean up the mess left by tourists is actually really honorable, then again everything else done is illegal.
Professionals have standards.
These Stalkers (specifically the ones doing the clean-up efforts, not all for sure) have had a fascination with the disaster for years, but in all likelihood just didn't have the resources to get legal permission to actually do or host tours there. They're essentially the amateur astronomers of the nuclear engineering world. They're seeing their fascination being eroded by increasing tourism and want to do something about it.
@@thegamesforreal1673 aye that’s a great way of looking at it
combine
I remember back when I was a kid, way before the HBO series and even before Instagram was a thing, my older half-brother expressed in front of my dad (who was one of the engineer liquidators, did two rotations at Chernobyl over a couple of years) his desire to visit the place some time. My dad said: "Don't. Just don't. But if you go regardless, buy a Geiger counter, only go in the dead of winter when everything's under snow with little dust, and, for the love of god, do not touch ANYTHING." I don't think he ever made that trip.
But it's so wild to me that people would just TAKE stuff from a radioactive zone.
Sometimes I wonder if those people actually understand the dangers of radiation like that.
@@ShadeSlayer1911 They don't, for many people radiation is just some funny magic that will make them ill.
I don't care about the deaths of the fanatics who pushed for fission nuclear power. THEIR deaths don't matter.
The deaths I care about or anyone should care about are those who had this disaster FORCED upon them:
children and animals and anti-nuke adults.
So if nuclear fission energy is so "safe", then why is any of this a problem? Why is there any problem of people visiting Chernobyl, taking stuff, if nuclear power is supposedly so safe, as pro-nuclear advocates preach endlessly?
How much greater is it than background radiation or self-radiation (yes, that's a thing I heard: our own bodies emit radiation, not just in the form of thermal heat)?
@@ShadeSlayer1911 I think they don’t
If you don't mind me asking, are you Ukrainian? If so, how are you doing over there? I follow the war in Ukraine closely from here in America, it breaks my heart sometimes. But I deeply admire the brave Ukrainian people.
I was in Chernobyl almost 2 years ago. It was a two day tour, first day around the zone and second day in Pripyat. The rules were very clear. No touching, drinking or eating. Avoiding puddles of water. Long sleeves and no shorts. There were a lot of dogs, that we were allowed to pet, but had to wash our hands with water right afterwards. We also had to have a small dosimeter on our necks, to confirm, that the guide wasn't taking us to any highly contaminated areas. And every time leaving the exclusion zone, we had to go through wholebody radiation monitor. So I would say, that it really depends on the responsibility of the tour guides and the very tourists.
You were part of the problem! Awesome.
@@coachmcguirk6297 ?????????
He is literally doing the "Taking care and being responsible" part. The problem isnt people going there, is the people not understanding to be respectful to the area and avoid the danger.
See the video again please.
@@coachmcguirk6297 doesn't sound like that to me. Tours are just fine when done correctly.
@@coachmcguirk6297 you have a double digit IQ! Awesome
@@michaelfortier7726 I agree, I didn't see anything remotely disrespectful about Michal Kubik's description of his time at Chernobyl. I think coach got a little over-excited.
My husbands elderly dad (russian) was one of the liquidators cleaning up after the disaster and we lived close enough (a few countries over to the west) that the cancer rate in our villages rose noticeably after it happened (and we were discourage to go foraging in the woods by our government for many years) AND IT'S WILD TO ME people want to visit this place.
Leave it alone. This is so disrespectful, not only to the actual place and the people trying to preserve it, but also to the people who were affected by this TO THIS DAY.
My god that's incredible, please thank him for preventing a literal nuclear fall out for the rest of the world! What those liquidators did for the whole world is so understated sometimes ❤
He is a hero ❤
I thank him and all of the other liquidators for everything they did, risking their lives to save others. They are truly amazing humans
I was in Pripyat in 2008. I'm glad i got to see it before social media ruined it. We were a small group, maybe 6 people, I saw barely anyone else in the zone that day, and all of us on the tour were incredibly respectful, not touching anything, moving anything, and treating the place as it was: the site of a catastrophic disaster.
Eventually I do want to go see it, but I just hope people don't mess it up more than what it is now
Respect.
Tbh not touching or moving anything isn’t just caring about others, it’s also caring about your own health xd
I have wanted to go for years. What stands out when I think of Chernobyl is the deserted amusement park and the ferris wheel. And the area with the apartment buildings. Which I saw some years ago that people actually still live there. It's sad to see that people are so disrespectful to leave trash and take stuff. I wish I could have gone to see it before it became trendy.
There's more places like chernobyl that are abandoned and overgrown. There is a music video by a German band called Blutengel that was filmed somewhere very similar to chernobyl. But I don't think that it's dangerous and radioactive. I don't remember where it was filmed but I think it would be awesome to explore it.
There's just something creepy but interesting about whole towns that are abandoned and overgrown. I find these places to be fascinating.
@@Randy.BobandyFor virtue signalling about also being a stupid radioactive tourist? Nah…
12:39 when I heard this my jaw actually dropped. Firefighters boots? Like the ones that were piled up in rooms because they were so radioactive? No thanks. No. Taking something like that is actually insane.
Especially after seeing a documentary about the boots' previous owners
Darwin awards
@evila9076 though I agree.. the sad part is these people may be taking them home to kids.
Or possibly other family members or friends who have absolutely no idea about the item.
Woman moment.
Taking something like that is actually awesome, and you're a cuck if you wouldn't.
The firefighter wearing them probably died in a long extremely painfull death and they get get disrespected like this
"Boots that have been taken out of a basement."
My eyes immediately widened when I heard that, someone is probably going to win a Darwin award for that.
Same. I was dozing-off a bit and then got a shot of adrenaline, because I remember bionerd23’s video from years ago and the damn meters screaming at them to gtfo. To think someone took _anything_ from down there as a souvenir…they’re gonna get cancer.
Why was it those boots in particular that elicited that reaction? Were the previous mentions of missing items not alarming? Im not being a dick just genuinely wondering if im missing something here
@@habibishapur In that particular basement were the remains of firefighter gear that had crazy high radiation. You heard him mentioned the boots were in the hundreds right? Some of those things down there were probably even higher. If you took a geiger meter down there, it would start screaming at you, very loudly too.
I've heard that even to this day, they are highly radioactive. So for anyone to touch it, seeing as they were first responders to it... yea. You gonna get cancer. If not burns. F to pay respects that idiot. It's probably not the same, but it's close to playing tag with the elephant foot.
@@habibishapur I can't speak for king, but I for one had the same reaction.
Because with something like a train model you just have it in the house. It's obviously bad but it's not necessarily THAT bad.
But someone that is as dumb as to take away clothing from radioactive areas, I can't help but wonder if they're going to WEAR those boots. And the idea gives me cold shivers.
11:46 That photo sickens me. Imagine being so egotistical that your own vanity is more important than the history and danger that surrounds you.
I don't like saying this, but she's probably not doing so well now. She's probably at the "find out" stage of "f*ck around."
it kinda made me laugh
I swear social media influencers have completely lost their sense of conscience.
They never had any to begin with.
I've wanted to visit Chernobyl to kind of see it and get a look at a place abandoned by humans but the fact that people are touching and going into places that are unsafe for pictures is insane. You treat that place with a lot of respect because it can be both dangerous and is something you want to preserve.
and that even when they hear the radiation meter going off near the item they're seeing, they still would want to touch it with their bear hands, without caring about how bad their hands will be weeks after.
Here is war in Ukraine. This place is even MORE dangerous
Yeah, besides the fact that people have put props in it now? It's difficult to tell what's real and what's fake. Just another reason not to go.
Instagram Influencers did nothing wrong! *poses like Griffith and takes a selfie.*
Say wherever you want, but whoever was stupid enough to take away some radioactive materials/contaminated objects - perfectly deserves their fate
It’s a natural selection, the probability of their imbecile children mess up something in the future just plummeted down the moment they took that boot from a basement
10:02 "somebody probably grabbed it and took it home" its terrifying how disrespectful people can be and take stuff home, tourism can be really scary sometimes
I wouldn’t be surprised if the people who took home to clothing and boots are wearing them semi-regularly. That’s a scary thought, since running a shirt through the wash won’t magically take away the radiation and the dangers that come with it.
It's even more terrifying when you consider that the tourist is probably waving it around there friends and family (spreading radiation) bragging about defacing a historical landmark
@@someoneudontknow3709bad genes always find a way for removing themselves. I just wish they at least reported for a Darwin award once their cancer becomes terminal.
Have they learnt nothing from the Goiana incident?!
Chemistry must be respected
Going to Chernobyl because of a movie: ❌
Going to Chernobyl because of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:✅
Going to Chernobyl because of “All Ghillied Up”: 🗿
Going to Chernobyl because of Metro
@@thekraken1173 chernobyl does not appear on metro the game is set in russia
Hehe Monolith gose brrrr
@@theoneandonlyartyom So?
Some people don't listen to the whole "take nothing, leave nothing" rule, which especially in a place like Chernobyl (was going to spell the city, but I can't remember how to spell it) just baffles me.
Pripyat, also I agree, as guy interesed in Nuclear inciddents its frustrates me how selfish people are, Im wondering if Zona is "open" right now, or if its closed for border patrol safety
@user-ig7gf3qt8j from what I can tell all tours have stopped because of the war, unfortunately it seems they will continue afterwards
One of my biggest fears is that the disrespect and modern trends are going to end up destroying history itself.
A bit extreme I think. It's not good I agree, but looters have existed for as long as there have been ruins to loot. With Chernobyl, most of it has been recorded already anyway.
@@protercool8474 It's not only that but the disrespect that comes with going to a site where many died and taking selfies and stuff, people don't care that it's a tragic place, they only care about their followers in that case.
rather, destroying civilization itself. And that's quite the fact.
ever wonder why there are no nazi memorials for the nazis? they lost, and the winners decide what gets memorialized. The truly amazing thing is that american memorials are still in tact in vietnam at all
@@abcdefbcdefg8352You mean German memorials for Germans?
To be honest, to hear Stalkers are in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone... I'm impressed but to hear there are Stalkers trying to ward off tourists from doing damage by graffiti or some ways and Stalkers repairing the damage by both sides is terrifying.
how is that scary? theyre just undiagnosed cancer patients running around painting things
@@MonsieurKraken no stalkers shouldn't exist either, the only people going there should be scientists and rehabilitation programs
@@MonsieurKraken my mistake
@@jeroid123 I mean jokes aside even if it's incredibly stupid and illegal I can't help but feel a tinge of admiration that people have taken upon themselves to restore things to working order
@@mercury5003 now they have but before these tourists were fucking with shit, it was the stalkers who caused trouble for the scientists and endangered themselves for thrills
Moral of the story: We can never have nice or precious things because people are stupid.
Props to the Stalkers for helping care of the place. True conservationists. Wish i could have seen it prior.
And this is why science education is so important. People need to understand the risks even if it’s just on a basic level.
Wouldn't help, if the actually watchedthat show, they already know, and they're doing it anyway.
Nah doesnt really help some people are just a lost cause
Science education requires a lot of things, especially the right mindset. Can't do that when many are more than willing to take celebrities and TV personalities at face value.
@@reinbeers5322 weird comment to make on a trend that taking place literally because they won't take a tv show and the actors therein at face value
It's not just that, it's also about the correct attitude to have towards historical sites. People shouldn't feel like they can alter places of memory like they want, radiations or not.
The sorrow you feel about tourism in Chernobyl is an everyday reality in Hawaii. I don’t have a problem with tourism, as you said, it’s good for the economy in general. I just wish tourists were more respectful of the place they are visiting.
lmao lmao lmao
@@natowaveenjoyer9862 what's so funny?
I hear that. People have no respect nowadays and it’s not okay!!
especially gooks
Not to downplay what you deal with. I'm sympathetic. But we can barely rely on the population at large to respect the places they live, let alone the places others live.
I just can’t imagine grabbing a boot that walked on nuclear fuel and graphite from the middle of a nuclear reactor and thinking that it’s safe
These people don't even think that far. So many people live comfortable easy lifes, that the very idea that something like this could kill them doesn't cross their mind.
People today have forgotten the two main rules in touring abandoned or important locations. Take nothing but pictures, and leave nothing but footprints. Yet even then, some of the pictures they took is absolutely disrespectful, or even dangerous.
I love that, even in real life, the Stalkers are the true, shadowy defenders of the Zone, from all menaces within, and here especially, without.
And the Instagramers are like the characters in Roadside Picnic, messing with things they don't understand...
Lol "stalkers". Who in their right mind transferred fiction. Sounds like a lot of bs in this vid.
@@jothain You need to do a little more research on the topic of Stalkers then... There is a whole underbelly of tourism in Chernobyl which caters only to those who wish to visit the area illegally and camp around the place. These stalkers act as tourist guides to these visitors, love the place but hate the influencers who came to know about the place from TV shows.
@@jothain what are you on? there are a SHIT TON of people who go in there illegally, some even have videos on youtube
Honestly kinda don't like how Kyle talks about them in the video, like "EVEN the stalkers", bc from what I've seen online they have just as much respect for the zone as the scientists and engineers in the video
Since stalkers were mentioned, they always tried their best to leave the least amount of trash behind they possibly could. And as far as I remember, they themselves set the rules that they won't take anything from the Zone. At least, that's what I've heard from the stories.
Actually it's about as opposite as it can be, the roadside picnic lore. Which actually has nothing to do with Chernobyl.
@@jothain I meant the real-life stalkers.
@@kontrol42 Ok..Man that term bothers me quite a bit 🙂
@@jothain more like stalkers from GSC S.T.A.L.K.E.R they care for zone and they like it how it was not this instagram bs.. i am Stalker fan and makes me really happy for what they do .
@@jothain Well.. yeah, I could’ve phrased it better, but that’s a term gere
Social media... bringing the worst out of humanity since 2003...
pripyat and the chernobyl zone has always been so fascinating to me. it sucks that its been changed so much.
It is truly astonishing to me that people can watch "Chernobyl" and be so influenced by it that they feel the desperate need to visit the site, and yet NOT have been influenced enough to realize that it's not only disrespectful, but dangerous!
Edit for clarification: When I say visiting Chernobyl is disrespectful, I don’t mean that the act of going there is disrespectful. I’m mostly talking about the people who are taking stupid and tasteless pictures whilst also possibly screwing around with items they shouldn’t be touching. As an example, you don’t go to the 9/11 memorial to take fun selfies, you go there to learn about what happened, remember the lives that were lost or impacted, and gain a new perspective on the events that took place. In my opinion there is absolutely a way to set up tours of the exclusion zone that could be respectful and safe, but that isn’t what’s being shown.
While I'm sure there are everyday folks that do go to visit, it seems like a lot of the people that visit are "showing off" that they DID visit Chernobyl. The kind of people that update you what their most recent meal was on instagram, or are in the middle of a beautiful experience like a sunset by the beach, and feel the need to take their phone out and show off that experience to other people. They're flaunting how "great" their lives are to gain internet points just like they are gaining some extra radiation levels.
History, friend! Learn what went wrong by reading and visiting.
I do not understand what makes it disrespectful visiting that site.
That being said if tourist get hurt, I see ZERO issue with that. Fuck them
@@codysergeant1486 Bad phrasing on my part. Visiting the site for remembrance or study isn't by any means disrespectful. I more so mean the people who do stuff like taking "fun" pictures inside the claw or Instagram influencers showing off their bodies or money within the exclusion zone of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
This is genuinely sad, to think that there are people that would go to a museum essentially and just take something without thinking of the impact that the incident had and what that item could do to them or others...😔
kinda like exactly what kyle did aswell
@@8RIGHTS?
@@8RIGHTS going to give any context?
@@8RIGHTS you have absolutely 0 comprehension skills. Keep your thoughts to yourself they add nothing of value to the world.
My ex GF broke a piece off the Flavian Amphitheater.. multiply that by a few thousand I’m surprised that colosseum is even still there…
put simply, social media is the cause of a lot of bad stuff, and it will get worse.
Slightly off topic the reason they are called "Stalkers" is based off the Film called Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky the name stalker comes from the book the movie is based on called Roadside Picnic by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It is philosophical science-fiction story about a zone in which people are not allowed to enter after a war, in this zone it is said people can find their hearts desire etc. It is a brilliant movie with some of the most beautiful shots put to film, it is amazing the phycological emotions it can bring out with so little, but it is also a very intelligent movie (and book of course) which explores very deep desires, meaning etc. Some say the movie was cursed/the area they filmed in was contaminated as the director, and two of the actors di ed not long after the filming of the same thing.
5:00 I love how they loudly talk about how dumb tourists come by and touch this highly radioactive object as oblivious tourists are a couple feet away doing just that.
Hopefully evolution takes care of it, but as someone above mentioned they'll try to sue or start a gofundme, and people even dumber will give them money because of course they will.
God I hate this timeline so much.
@@logicplague2077 the thing about radiation is it's indiscriminate, if someone takes home something reading dozens of Mr per hour and then they have a party at their house for a few hours they not only severely harmed themselves but now everyone at that party too.
@@Garmin21111 Yeah...that's the sad part, they can't just remove themselves from the gene pool.
@@logicplague2077you can’t fault people for being uninformed
@@tuberculosisterrence567 You can't say "The HBO series motivated me to go tour it" and be uninformed. HBO series literally informa you. Its not an excuse and they should be jailed for endangering others by bringing highly radioactive items out.
It's actually a semi-good thing, because this is one of those places which punishes you for desecrating it and not by a curse, but by shooting particles at your sorry ass
Whilst true, it also affects the people on the planes as well as the family members who have to live with the radiation they brought to their homes.
@@thrownsofaraway9978 and possibly the neighbours if the radiation is strong enough
and if these people decide to have it as a garden decoration, oh my god
@@kuhluhOG Brings a whole new meaning to "stop and smell the roses".
Yes, but it stresses the environment far more than their ignorant asses sadly.
the artifacts
It’s VERY interesting how attitudes change. When I was young, you wouldn’t find ANYONE who would willingly go to Chernobyl. Like you’d die instantly if you went there. We didn’t actually believe that, but the scare and seriousness was definitely real.
Now it’s more casual. People’s eyes don’t widen if you mentioned it. It’s not as mystical and haunting.
We get desensitised by media, and forget how real and dangerous it is. Although it’s not as bad as it used to be, going there for some instagram likes weren’t a trade off people were willing to make.
The TV series romanticised it on some level, and also made it out to be like Europe was gonna be destroyed.
I hope they release a dramatic thrilling series on septic-diving, i promise we would be seeing normies bathing in shit soon 😂
Very true, people do not realize how their lack of care is truly an issue, you lack the feelings at heart and progressively emotional intelligence drags to 0 and then your rationality begins to sensibly shift too, and now you're become a worse human in all ways and act accordingly.
Imagine going about your life, not knowing that a box in the park you visit often has a piece of cloth that could give you cancer.
It's incredible to think that people would be stupid enough to take things from the exclusion zone.
The part that scare me the most is how these items don't look dangerous, they are not a gas mask or a yellow uniform with a radioactive sign on it. It's a piece of cloth or a pair of old boots
This is sad. I'm a Senior Reactor Operator. I've always wanted to tour this site, respectfully and carefully, because of the powerful lesson this place holds. It's easy to justify why I will never end up in their shoes (multiple technological advances, completely different design, completely different culture, etc.) but if I were born in a different time in place, who's to say? It holds so much historical significance and it's a shame it's being defaced in this manner.
US Navy NMM here. I'd love to say a thing like "I can't believe this," but the thing is...I can. Its so infuriating, that people who would treat nuclear power as unnecessary, use it as social media cloutraising to get likes on pictures and increase their popularity. Priyapat, and Chernobyl at large are a cautionary tale about safety, proper procedure, and proper training for the workers and managers. It is not a site for posing half naked, or putting on a trench coat and pretending to be Neo or John Wick.
I almost have the apathy needed to say that if someone takes an item from Priyapat, they deserve the harm they receive, but that would only result in more harm being done to nuclear power and how its perceived, it needs to be stated that if someone is in the exclusion zones, and they take shots like that, they will face a monumental fine and face some kind of charge.
If anyone deserves to tour that place is you, but no, an Instagram "model" showing her ass beat you to it.
@@nuclearsimian3281 I am mainly concerned about some innocent person who didn't even visit Chernobyl randomly comes across a pair of boots after those people left, and reasonably assume that it isn't radioactive. The problem with this kind of contamination is the spread it could get, and the random and innocent people getting cancer or worse. It could spread across continents and would be incredibly difficult to track down since it's literally just a random pair of boots.
safe bet is you were a sailor at some point?
@@HyperionGamingTOPKEK I was, yes. Oddly enough, Chernobyl didn't make waves in the American nuclear industry like TMI or Fukushima did. Those incidents generated significant technological and procedural changes. Since the Chernobyl design was so completely different than the design of other countries, the lessons were mostly in training and mindset. That being said, it was still a significant breakdown in communication, procedure, and knowledge and lessons can be learned. If we can learn lessons in operations from pilots, we can definitely learn from this incident.
What pisses me off about this is the people that stole things from the site, aside from being complete an utter morons, are not only endangering their own health, but if they decide maybe taking a radioactive boot or whatever wasn't such a good idea. They're just going to throw it away, so somebody else who has to deal with the trash and the trash processing is going to be exposed as well, getting others sick.
I will just say I am 16 and have a newfound obsession with the study of radiation and nuclear science. It's honestly fascinating how far we've come as humans to be able to create machines like the reactors at Chernobyl, (janky as they were), but it disgusts me that people older than me are ruining it and don't even seem to have the slightest understanding of radiation...
I don't like saying this, but they might learn a thing or two when their hair falls out and their skin starts falling off.
Guy who took the boots: What is this blob on ny hand, probably a blister.
Love your content and what you do, keep up the good job kyle!
I did tons of projects on Chernobyl when I was in high school and gained such a deep love and respect for the site and story. I always hoped to visit but seeing what it’s become now is so sad.
With this video in mind maybe the biggest respect you can give to this area is to not visit. I always wanted to visit too, it's been on my bucket list. It no longer is. I want this area to be preserved as is.
what part of an on going war drrrrrrp
Same - I did a paper on it in college over a decade ago and hoped to visit one day, but sounds like it is not worth it anymore.
I'm seriously hoping that SOMEBODY got a full topographic and photgrammetry scan of the area prior to the invasion.
What I wouldn't give to be able to explore that ghostly relic of a disaster. Even if it had to be in VR, or even just a normal monitor. Still photography and videos do not equal the level of scale and understanding that comes from seeing from your own PoV, simulated or otherwise.
@@jtnachos16 They did 3D scans for the game Chernobylite, and believe they did make a VR game out of those, too
this reminds me of the huge wave of people who are into true crime, and treat it as cool horror stories, as if those aren’t…. actual people who died, that they are disrespecting. harrassing victims’ families, etc. but this is almost worse bc on top of the disrespect to the people who died, and the zone itself, they’re ALSO physically harming themselves and others with their disregard for safety and willingness to not only touch, but TAKE things from the zone
That gets to me too. I watched two of those types of videos and that was enough.
They are actual criminals that did very real things to innocent people, i really don't understand how people binge watch that shit. Morbid curiosity into the minds of criminals maybe, it is potentially useful to see how certain individuals act or talk to learn red flags, but a lot of people really do treat it like they're listening to some drama tv show.
Reminds me of the almost worship people have for criminals just because they "look too cute for jail".
@@thatoneannoyingtornadosire8755 People are drawn to the cult of celebrity. It doesn't even matter the circumstance behind why or how these individuals have achieved this level of fame
I've always been interested in crime and the psychology behind it, as well as disasters and what lead up to them, the aftermath etc. . It's shocking how many people in this "true crime" community idolize those criminals, making light of those that suffered from them. The last example I can think of being that guy that's "too handsome for jail". Absolutely vile and disrespectful to the victims, their family and friends.
Those who read books or watch documentaries about true crime are no different from the many who watched teh Chernobyl miniseries. Whatever one may argue about voyeurism vs education, both are within bounds. Those who treat murderers as pop idols and those who would disturb a grave though, equally appalling.
@@thatoneannoyingtornadosire8755 the chernobyl disaster is kind of like a crime drama, except it's not serial killers, it's soviet officials with no regard for health and safety (because they made all the RBMK reactors very cheap). they were the real criminals.
Sounds like they should start to hand out darwin awards at the zone.
I work with electricity and a old vet told me once his mantra: if you dont have to do somthing, hands in your pocket - so you cant tuch anything live.
And i would do the same there. Crazy how careless people are… and how lucky they are that nothing bad happend, yet.
I finally was able to watch the HBO special "Chernobyl". What I took away from the series was a warning. A series of mistakes, lack of information, and false pride. Nothing about that series makes me want to travel to Chernobyl to take a selfie or bring home a souvenir.
I remember visiting the catacombs in Rome and being told by the tour guide how they have had to remove some of the bodies from their resting places because tourists take bones as souvenirs! And somehow this is even worse.
I live in quite a touristy town, I'm used to graffiti and people asking me for directions to stuff they're standing right in front of, I've seen people steal stones from walls and I've seen the repair work our council has to do.
I can't imagine how soul crushing it must be to be a regulator in Chernobyl. To tell people time and again to use common sense, not put their heads in radioactive machinery! A hard job, but so, so important.
I'm sorry but removing an entire body from its resting place no matter the reason is incredibly shitty.
The solution seems to be that they need to a police force monitoring Priyapat and have an officer assigned to each tour group, if anyone starts snapping selfies, they get put on a cart and wheeled back to the city. Its understandable to take pictures. Its not understandable to strip down and pretend to be a hooker in a site where people died and lost everything of value to them. That'd be like going into the 9/11 wreckage when it was still there, and shooting a porno on the dusty ruins.
@@polocatfan better for the proper authorities to put the remains in an equally respectful but more secure resting place. Rather than some TikTwat stealing the skull for a "souvenir" that they'll probably break or try to sell anyway.
@@polocatfan I'm sorry but this is a braindead take.
@@polocatfan whats your solution then?
I'm glad you documented this very real problem.
The Stalkers are the heroes of this story. They respect the Zone to the point they're willing to clean it up and preserve it into what it was.
It makes sense, without the zone there's no Stalker subculture
@@renatonovis Well, I suppose Fukushima NPP could be a backup site if the Zone becomes too deteriorated or commodified. Though the Japanese government might strenously object to such activities...
...
And, of course, there's always the possibility that Zaporizhzhia NPP might become another Zone if Russia decides to flip the bird to Ukraine and blot out Kherson + Zaporizhzhia Oblasts (and potentially all of southern Ukraine if the situation isn't mitigated quickly enough).
@@lurkingcarrier8736 Russia is playing a partisan war with Ukraine for over a year now, so that turn of events is highly unlikely.
@@ShadeAKAhayaterussia isn't lead by an even remotely logical thinker. He could do the Cartman and say "if I can't have it, nobody can." Order his soldiers to rig the plant before retreating and then blow it up as soon as they leave.
Sadly that wouldn't be beneath him.
@@Igor_servant_of_Philemon Man, don't you understand you're describing a simulacrum? Sometimes I have a feeling I'm talking to travelers from 1984 Universe.
One of my biggest regrets in life is not visiting this place when I had the chance. I've been absolutely fascinated with this story since before the miniseries ever came out, it was a dream of mine to go visit and I figured that I would go when I graduated from college. The announcement of the miniseries was like a dream come true, but then set in the painful realization of what would happen to that area, with the tourists and commercialization. It devastated me. And then, the invasion of Ukraine happened. The area certainly has gone through changes and holds a heavier history than before, so, perhaps someday in the far future I will be able to visit that place.
If you go into the most radiated place on earth without a Geiger counter then that’s natural selection at work.
4:33 when talking about the claw, i loved how the guy raised his voice to say "it's very radioactive still" as a subtle way to say to the group as a whole, and anyone nearby, to get away from it
In a fruitless effort, sadly. You can’t tell these people anything ESPECIALLY when their nostrils are pointing at their chest, eyes locked onto a screen.
Social media and especially these "models" aka man whores and woman slags for the most part, are the worst invention for the human species as a whole and will always have and always will have the worst social and ecological effects on society and the world ever.
Screw em. It's their cancer to gain lol
@@Ser-Vex131 Right up until they bring something home and start poisoning their friends, family and neighbours without even considering the concept of warning them at all.
@@venoltar they probably won't even care tbh
In 2018, a group of Brazilian youtubers I watch went to the Chernobyl exclusion zone. They were given a very serious briefing prior to reaching their first stop in the exclusion zone, and were told not to touch anything and to behave properly. It's terrible to know that a few years later, new tourism companies would pop up and care more about the money and less about the safety of tourists and instructing them on how to properly behave.
>care more about the money and less about the safety of tourists and instructing them on how to properly behave.
Tbf, it's their funeral.
That's the difference between being research-focused and profit-focused
A few cancer cases and lawsuits later, I'm sure it'll die down later.
@@guycross493 But that's the funny thing about people, even if it makes a short term impact, people will eventually want to make their way back regardless, because they think it's "cool." Besides this, the people going there and doing these things, are already too stupid to know why it's bad (hence why they're there to begin with), and to understand why they unexpectedly got cancer so young despite the plethora of information available online
@@guycross493cancers and lawsuits what? They're Ukraine. 10 years ago, they marched the Red Square. Now where they are. 30 years ago, there was another state. 40 years ago, Pripyat would be a hustling young and beautiful city. One of my university professors grew up there. Another 40 years ago There would be the bloodiest war Humanity ever seen.
By the time cancer develops - they would ceise existence not as a business, but also quite likely as a state.
I’m part of the stalker community. Not surprised they clean up illegally, it’s one of the nicest communities I’ve found.
It's funny, I went to Chernobyl in 2017 and it was the "stalkers" who were the ones setting up the instagram photo ops with gas masks and dolls. And our tour guide was a lot better about keeping things preserved and showing us the danger of the exclusion zone. It helped that the group was about 7 people including the guide. It's really sad that this is no longer the respectful experience that I had.
I've seen the same sad reality in German concentration camps. Every German student is taught about the horrors and evils of the holocaust and every single one of us takes at least one mandatory class trip to one of the camps to see the locations of those horrors first hand. As a German, you walk through these places with a dark reverence, all the death and suffering in mind. You barely dare touch anything because the last thing you want is to desecrate the history of the place.
And then you see the tourists. Not people interested in history, but tourists. They treat the concentration camps like amusement parks. They sit and picnic on the memorial stones in whose surfaces are carved the names of the Nazi regime's victims. They take pictures smiling like idiots in front of the barracks where prisoners were forced to sleep on blank, cold wood, barely a square meter to themselves. Their kids sit around the museum playing Super Mario on their Switch right in front of the horrifying display of the very hair cut from the heads of prisoners doomed to death. They pose like influencers in front of the remaining gas chambers and take selfies just to post them online with a "deep" hashtag.
As a German who was taught my country's history without a filter, without rose tinted glasses, this evokes nothing but disgust and contempt. Millions of people were systemically murdered here. Treat the place with the respect it demands.
Sometimes i feel that places like these shouldn't be marketed for tourism. It would be much better if they were only for schooling/education/research programs.
Busses full of Karen and her 5 kids running around touching and getting everything dirty at a place where people suffered greatly is honestly shameful. Social media clout chasers are old enough to absolutely know better than to do that dumb shit but they do it anyways.
@@thatoneannoyingtornadosire8755 The last time I was at a concentration camp was before the boom of social media influencers, so I can only imagine how much worse it is today.
I don’t know how you haven’t taken a swing at someone. I’d not be able to keep my calm.
I respect your self control.
The gift of a free life wasn't meant for social media junkies. All they want to do is desecrate the past for those scant 5 minutes of fame.
@@ankaplanka they never had to think of others, is what I think it is. And they currently don't think of others.
The thing is, I can imagine that a lot of people who visit to chernobyl have a thought at some point that it would be "cool" to have a relic from there to take back with them. But if you have HALF A BRAIN CELL you would immediately realize how bad of an idea that actually is, and leave everything where it is. Leave only footsteps, take only memories.
For real. If there's one place I wouldn't want to bring a souvenir home from it's with absolute certainty Chornobyl. At best I'd take a handful of pictures and that's it.
Taking anything physically from that area is peak insanity, no ifs or buts.
I have something from Chernobyl. But it's sealed inside a lead vessel.
Maybe brain cancer will help put a little intelligence inside these people.
I visited one of those mummy exhibits that travels around to different museums. You're not allowed to even take pictures while in there because it's like taking a picture of a dead body and then what, you gonna post that on social media? Would you take a selfie with your dead grandpa and post that? Honestly, you know, nowadays...it wouldn't surprise me. But where did the respect go?! People who used to live in those homes, the little girl who used to own that doll sitting in that school is probably still alive somewhere living a totally different life than the one she was supposed to because of what happened. That was her home, that was her real life taken from her and destroyed. And people go blast it all over the internet with big smiles on their faces, "Look at me! I get to be here alive doing dumb shit thanks to the sacrifices of others but who cares look at me!"
My main point being, I don't understand the people who even wish to take a souvenir. It deserves respect. Even though there aren't piles of bones on the floors of those abandoned homes, there is still tremendous loss there.
I take photos for the history, I don’t take it for viewers or likes.. I take photos to teach people the history
Just awful and heartbreaking. I'm surprised there isn't more security in the area, and that the people and groups that haven't been trained and educated are allowed to treat this place like a playground.
Good on the stalkers who clearly have respect for the area.
I’ll be honest, I never knew stalkers were real people (5:08). I heard the term used in the video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Metro 2033 and figured it was some term made up by those franchises, but to learn they’re real people (albeit not fighting mutants and collecting anomalies) was very interesting and eye opening. Thank you for making this video and hopefully preventing more people from taking lingerie pictures upon the corpse of one of our worlds greatest tragedies.
The term originates from the Stalker movie by Tarkovskij which also gives its name to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games.
@@KepleroGT Nope. The term originates from Roadside Picnic, Soviet science fiction book by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Tarkovsky's Stalker and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game is loosely based on that book.
@@eletanias I forgot that the movie originates from that novel, you're right
Its like taking a photo naked over someone's grave. An open casket at this point because bones lie around without anyone to barry them.
@@Unkown242 Well that girl took a pic semi naked
Holy crap, this is equal parts infuriating and terrifying.
The boot thing is absolutely horrifying.
Instagram Influencers did nothing wrong! *poses like Griffith and takes a selfie.*
Personally, I'm much more infuriated than terrified. They had every opportunity to recognize the risks. I care less about the danger they pose to themselves than the danger they cause everyone around them as they travel home and tout their prize.
@@frostebyte It wont just hurt them. It can also hurt anyone else who comes in contact of it with no idea what it is. Its another source.
@@frostebyte I'm terrified for those people around them that are going to be exposed to that level of contamination.
My mother was in Germany when this happened and was told to not drink any dairy because it could be radiated so hearing people eating is very odd
7:58 and to add to that, ingesting contamination is probably the worst.
Alpha radiation is stopped by clothes and your skin. It's large with a decent amount of energy due to the size of the particle, so if it gets to soft tissue that can be affected like your stomach and lungs, then it doesn't matter what the general area dose rate is.
Why are we like this? It is so sad to see ones selfish need to feed the machine of social media and ones ego, bring out such lack of respect for what happened there. Thanks for sharing Kyle.
Because people are shit and I'm happy we ruin our planet to the point we all die. Humans don't deserve earth
These instagram models are taking almost nude pictures in places like Auschwitz aswell. Completely disrespectful and a clear indicator of the selfishness and arrogance aswell as the FOMO-syndrome that has befallen western society.
Upbringing has a lot to do... Youth are not taught to be respectful these days. So they behave like they own the world.
@@sl06bhytmar plenty of respectful youth out there, there has always been a good chunk of people like this in every era
Who is we.
This is a well needed PSA about this kinda of tourism. Glad you made this. Keep up the great work Kyle.
but he was there doing that kind of tourism too, this makes no sense?
'they are idiots but im not' even though we both came to this radioactive place because of a tv show.
stop trying to use high ground you just as bad as the 'tourists'
This reminds me of a time I went on a tour of a cave and at one point the guide asked we try to not feel up the walls, because they had already been "molded" in a way by the oils from hands constantly touching it years ago. People dont realize what they do most of the time and just do things becuase its entertaining or "cool"
There are two types of people, those that want to preserve historical items then there are those that want to destroy them instead.
imo, one of the most terrifying things about this is the fact that those who have taken things from the exclusion zone are either knowingly or unknowingly spreading contamination outside of the exclusion zone. currently no, it hasnt been enough to cause a serious event, but if it keeps happening thats not an unlikely scenario, all it could take is somebody taking the wrong thing (take the firefighter's boot for example) then passing it around to friends or family to see for themselves.
also kinda reminds me of the goiania accident, obviously thought they arent the same
Someone has watch to much House MD
@@thor.halsli *has never heard of or watched that in my life*
Goiania*, and House is the investigative medicine tv show with Hugh Larie thats inspired by Sherlock Homes
@@IHateNumbersOnNames Ohhh okay, also thanks for correcting the spelling lol
That claw bucket was supposed to have been moved somewhere deep into the exclusion zone so it was hard to find, but somehow it was found again and appears to be a location the tours take you.
It is. But all responsible tour guides will advise you against going too close or touching it. ngl it was fun to watch numbers go up when you put Geiger counter next to it :)
@@Lillireify you're part of the problem.
@@Lillireify I'm sure it'll be fun when your doctor tells you the number of your life is going down. "responsible tourguides" lol
@@penguinsmovies I think he was saying it was fun seeing that because he knows their foolishness will inevitably punish them
@@ThatOneGuyWhoLostHisHandle you know you can be next to it for a few minutes and be perfectly fine right? Problems arise when you touch it or go inside the claw
Thank you Kyle & team, for another great educational film
I was there in 2018 before the HBO show. Took a 1 day tour with a somewhat certified tourism company. We all were informed that the tour would only visit places with acceptable radiation values. The tour guides had radiation meters and you could carry your own for an extra fee. Some times they were showing us some known objects/ trees/ places where the devices detected higher values, but never harmful doses.
One other very important detail you left out, everybody needs to pass thru a radiation detector on leaving the zone, its kind of like an airport security thing, so i don't think you can bring contaminated stuff from there.
Early, before they had tourism, there was a UA-camr named Bionerd23. You might still find her videos here. She and friends would go out with Geiger counters and look for hot particles in the ground. She took us around into off limit buildings and so we had a glimpse of how it was originally abandoned.
I think her videos would be good research for what it once was. She was very interested in nuclear stuff and approached it in a scientific way.
She disappeared from UA-cam very suddenly, never to return.
I remember her working with Veritasium in the Uranium show back in the day. He visited Chernobyl with bionerd23 to investigate the radioactivity there
I remember going in the zone with her back in 2015 or 2016. She was definitely an enthusiast but not very careful. She didn't have a problem with getting contaminated. At least she knew what she was getting into. I don't know that you can say the same thing about many of the tourists that visit the zone.
She was hard core but the OG of UA-cam. I heard she was kicked out of Chernobyl bc she was going in to restricted areas
@@analfloss453 She was hardcore. She used to camp out inside Pripyat, fish in the river, and eat apples she picked in Pripyat. She did get banned from the zone. I was lucky to visit the zone with both her and Carl Willis... both Chornobyl OG UA-camrs. Fun times before the miniseries and all the tourists came.
@@_TRG_208 About that restricted place you guys have get in
What do you really learn from there?
I remember a thing about Chernobyl tourists after the STALKER video game came out too. Seems like these tourists broke the most basic rule of sightseeing, take only pictures and leave only footprints. A good rule for some nature trail, a downright smart rule for a nuclear disaster zone.
Indeed these influencers and wannabe influencers are NOT "sightseers" and their tour guides clearly don't care. Sightseers have respect, they are here to experience and observe.. These people are more interested in credibility and feeding ego.
And to follow the full safety procedures as well.
The fun thing is that the same Stalker community was very pissed after the influencer invasion of the Zone, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of those folks are the ones behind the restoration efforts we saw here.
I know it might sound weird for outsiders, but over time there have been folks that see the Zone as a sacred place that must be preserved. Ultimately, it also led to a lot of people actually learning about the disaster and all the sacrifice people made to contain it.
This is worse than the flower fields that Instagramers completely destroyed by taking so many photos
5:07 I love how while they’re calmly talking, the counters are ticking like crazy lop
Your feelings on the disrespect shown are valid. I remember visiting the Vietnam memorial wall with my grandfather who served in that war and had friends on that wall. As he was searching for the names there were teens and young adults not 10 feet away pointing out names they thought sounded funny and yelling and laughing
Irreverence is how some people deal with a heavy situation. If you make light of it, you don't have to confront the weight of what happened. Kids do this all the time at memorial sites because kids don't want to, or don't know how to, process this shit.
Vandalism is obviously an issue, but ultimately if all they're doing is pointing and laughing, I don't let it bother me. Comedy is subjective and disrespecting the sacred cow is often the point of the exercise.
@@rhobidderskag1121most likely they don’t have empathy, can’t comprehend, if they were born in a different time or place it could be their name on the wall.
Difference is the Vietnam memorial is there to respect soldiers who fought in an Imperialistic war and committed war crimes left and right so yk a lil deserved :p
@@Spearmint22425 Can't comprehend maybe. It's a bit of a jump that because a kid laughs at a name on a wall when the adults tell them it's searious that means they're devoid of empathy.
@@someonesomethingidk3494 The vietnam war wasnt imperialist at all. We didnt even conquer anything like in Iraq. All our efforts were confined to the south and we were supporting part of the native population.
One of the things that's always fascinated me about this site is that it became kind of a snapshot of that day in 1986. It's really a shame that is slowly going away because people are just messing with things.
Its like how people meddled with the Titanic wreck and likely hastened its destruction.
I honestly don't care all too much about the picture people take and stuff. I do think it's stupid and disrespectful, but I much more hate hearing that people are taking things and rearranging things around the area....
not that sad. there is not a single location in the eastern world that is untouched. if you abandone something there will be people there to vandalise and steal 0,002sec after it get's abandoned.
@@rampage3337 I'm kinda more fine with that, than people moving things around and taking things for the sake of tourism and wanting a souvenir
@@rampage3337 You say that but in the video the guy Kyle was with said that up until pretty recently there were still a lot of things untouched, but after tourism became bigger, stuff got taken and moved. In this case it is mainly tourism.
Even the people there illegally have a lot of respect for the place and try to fix what the tourist break. Did you even watch the video to see what its about? Chernobyl is not your average abandoned place anyway. People wouldnt have been able to vandalise or steal anything 0.002 seconds after it was abandoned.
So yea it is sad
Thanks for sharing and bringing awareness about this.
I never thought about it before I started watching videos of people coming to the exclusion zone,but every single house and apartment and building inside this radius has had everything stolen from it,back in 1986 when they were evacuated they left a lot of their stuff behind,now all the metal has been stripped from everywhere,electrical wires machinery,all this must also be contaminated
Damn imagine the dude that took the boots as a souvenir... bringing it back home. Years later founding out it has contaminated family members and now cancer. Or maybe he decided to throw it away in trash can, and someone grabbed it.. how the hell would people know this is hazardous without detector
because its chernobyl! the whole area is dangerous of radiation! you will need to be brain dead to take anything from there!
It's been decades since the disaster and those stuff are still "hundreds of mR"? Imagine the half-life of these things. Any government around the world would declare that a biochemical threat.
I knew a stalker, he's been drafted in the Ukraine war. He would take pictures and enjoy the area. He knew a lot of things about it, I would enjoy just hearing him talk on and on. He never took anything, strongly saying if anyone took it, it was guaranteed cancer.
Slowly he stopped going, mainly because he lost faith in going. Things moved, people graffiting in buildings, on items, missing items. His distaste was clear.
I absolutely hate this, it shouldn't be a walk around thing.
Just so people know, he ended up moving around 2021 closer to the Ukraine border where the war is happening. Last we spoke, his home was overtaken.
Damn, I really hope he's doing ok at least.
@@odstat1949 I do too, I think about him sometimes. Not sure if he's been drafted still in the fight or is long gone. He was a fun guy to play videogames with too.
He sounds like a great guy. I hope he's safe somewhere. Ha'Shem watch over him and keep him whole.
When I heard accounts of Russian soldiers ordered to set up encampments and dig trenches in the Red Forest during the early weeks of the invasion, I couldn't believe what they were doing. But they were likely brought in with limited knowledge of what they're walking into and even if they did know it's hard to oppose orders.
But there's no excuse with these hazard tourism influencers. They know exactly how the Exclusion Zone came to be, yet willingly go there with reckless abandon and even inspire more foolish influencers and total strangers to do the same. These people are less like the soldiers who dug up radioactive soil for a pointless defensive operation, and more like Russia's military command that showed little to no care about the dangers of the exclusion zone or the welfare of their troops.
Sorry to hear about your Ukrainian buddy. The situation has been real rough for folks on the eastern half.
I hope that he is okay and that you may find each other again. People who have high respect without payoff are unique. That's someone important to have in one's life.
I physically couldn't imagine touching anything in Chernobyl, let alone enter such a place. I'm an extremely cautious individual by nature, so the idea on entering a place as dangerous as Chernobyl would definitely have me feeling on edge
This has such a polarizing emotion to me
I love photography and especially when it comes to capturing the aftermath of tragedy. There’s something about it that allows me to have a better connection with the events that took place
I would never even think of messing with radiation or anything regarding desecrating the site of disaster. So it pains me to see people so recklessly putting there’s and others lives at risk all to save some souvenir from a highly radioactive building.
But I also can’t in good conscience say that I wouldn’t enjoy being out there taking photos of the town. Not in the vein of clout or recognition. But to better understand and immerse myself in the events that took place.
This is insane. How can you take something from a place like that? Something that can make you and everybody around it extremly sick?
If I just ignore the lack of respect and the entitlement of those people, I still struggle with their stupidity
And even ignoring that, why would you?? I can't imagine stealing a boot, let alone a radioactive boot lmao. Do they use it as decor or something?
This is so upsetting. I’ve been wanting to do one of these tours for a long time and I couldn’t imagine not taking every single precaution to not touch anything, or deface anything that this historical site has.
well you can't there is an active war zone but then again go ahead if the Russian army kills you thinking you are a Ukrainian then that on you, WAKE UP
Couldn't imagine not?
@@lilporky8565yeah, that makes perfect sense what about it?
@bunkergamer6745 OK I thought something was wrong, but upon further review it turns out I'm just stupid.
@@lilporky8565 the easiest way is to remove one of the two negatives and then reverse what it means
Kinda makes me happy that there are people who will suffer the consequences of their stupidity but then i think of everyone they put in danger when they leave and it sucks
I think the government should also act to discourage people from going to the area… if the local Ukrainian government isn’t willing to curb this sort of behaviour, prevent people from using such a dangerous location as a tourist trap, then this was always going to happen and continue.
Edit: it’s also important to remember that government intervention had worked. The Lascaux caves have banned all tourist activities since 1963 because human existence damaged the cave…
They used to make big bucks off of it.
The saddest thing about the theft of these contaminated items (apart from the destruction of a time capsule of course) is that the thieves not only endanger themselves but also innocent people around them.
The worst part is that while it may not directly affect those people, because radiations primarily affects the DNA directly, meaning that if those 'influencers' will have kids, they will likely get devastating deceases and/or mutations. My Physics teacher's granddad was a Chernobyl liquidator and actually lived to around 70, and, fortunately for his family, already had kids. Those people, however, may not have such luck.
I doubt the kids will be mutated. Human DNA is surprisingly healable. Now, should you put your head in claws and take items as souvenirs? Absolutely not!
@@robertoroberto9798 Radioactivity directly affects human DNA, to the point where if something is radioactive enough, it WILL NOT heal. Obviously unlikely to happen from picking up a shirt in the zone, but long enough contact can and will cause irrevocable damage to human DNA.
Sounds like some good ol natural selection. Good of mother nature to filter these people out of the human genome
@@RAAM855 If that actually worked, idiocy would have been long gone, but it rather seems like idiocy is increasing, so I really don't have much faith in the idea that natural selection is weeding out idiots from the population.
@@Essah15 idiocy is currently increasing because of humanity’s advances making it easier to live longer, idiots survive long enough to reproduce now. Kinda sad but it is what it is. Solution would be to somehow humanely rid of all the idiots… too bad there isn’t a way.
I think I’ve seen the limits of human stupidity but I’m constantly surprised by how low it can actually go.
It's not all bad, these influencers can expect a nasty surprise later in life
I know a teenager that has plans to visit Chernobyl in the future, because of the mini-series. I've shared this video with her in the hopes that she will show more respect and restraint if or when she does visit. Thank you for a very insightful and respectful reflection on what happens there.
ayo @ her, im planning to go again once the war is over, wanna take a bigger group this time
i would recommend against visiting exclusion zone for a while (even if the war is over and it will be allowed) since the areas that russians retreat from are always full of mines and elaborate hidden booby traps (a door holding grenade without a pin, for example).
there's nothing wrong with wanting to see prypjat and the abandoned nuclear power plant, but - you should always educate yourself before you take a trip to what you could call a memorial zone. keep in mind that it's still a dangerous place, even though prypjat has been decontaminated quite a few times and is considered safe to walk around. remember that people lived there before disaster struck; people who lost everything to the radiation contamination, their homes, their pets, most of their friends. prypjat was a beautiful place once, full of young families (the average age was only 26!) who thought they had a bright future ahead of them. don't go and disrespect their legacy with tasteless pictures just because you want to look edgy on instagram. it isn't a cool place to visit for fun. there's nothing amazing about it. visiting doesn't make you edgy and brave. please do not disrespect prypjat like that.
War is still happening no one is gonna take her
@@linecraftman3907 😂😂😂
yes, my friends and I went on an illegal excursion to Chernobyl before the war and we fixed up the apartment there and came back weeks later everything was destroyed.Its so sad what it came to.
Cool
I'm interested to know: Are you from Kiev? Or at least Ukrainian or Belorusian?
Why are you trying to "fix" anything lol
@@shift7808 I'm assuming by fix they mean restoring to how it was prior to tourist damage
@@shift7808 imagine you live in a house for 30 years and you have to leave quickly with all your memories behind.We stalkers want people to come and remember their times before the disaster
Imagine not only visiting a still radioactive city, but one currently near a warzone.
You can’t visit it anymore but when the war ends it will be even worse because it’ll be doubly destroyed and therefore twice as inticing
I always wanted to go to Chernobyl and Pripyat but now that its been vandalized and messed with I dont want to go there as much as I once did.
This pisses me off, ruining history, ruining lives for money and social media. I really do hope the people who moved things and took some stuff got a harsh reality check, it’s almost a self correcting issue
Mark Twain complained about this in 1867 in his travel book 'Innocents Abroad' already. That these early tourists would basically take everything for souveniers. He half-jokingly wrote that after they had been invited to the Tsars winter palace on the Krim-peninsular I believe, that they - the hosts - would wost likely be counting their silverware after they had left.
reality is not even in the dictionary for these people
I always thought it'd be interesting to take a guided tour into the zone, ever since I first learned about the disaster when I was like, 12... but my idea of "guided" even then was someone who knew the hazards pretty well and would be able to tell me what was safe and what wasn't, taking nothing but photos and memories, etc. Its kinda messed up that my 12 year old imagining was more responsible than grown adults actually going there.
Yup same. Much like you I've been wanting to visit the place for quite a while and that's how I'd do it too: trustworthy guide, strict adherence to the designated path, no touching anything for any reason, memory making limited to pictures. Hell, with what COVID taught me about what we inhale and all, I'd add PPE wearing on the list as well.
Even when I was much younger doing the things those cretins are doing didn't even cross my mind and seeing people still do that after watching the series who perfectly illustrates how dangerous radiation and the levels that were encountered in Chornobyl just blows my damn mind...
The difference is you were more mature as a child than these grown adults
There is no such thing as "grown adults" just older children.
Same here! I've wanted to go for a long time, but with experts who know what they're doing, not the guides just trying to make a buck who don't care about safety. Not so sure about it anymore. Too many crazy people endangering others and doing stupid stuff out there.
It's still that way. With both people older than us and younger than us. It's sad how stupid people get to live in this world and cause the rest of us disaster and pain that they won't even deal with themselves.
This is just sad. And unfortunatelly, this kind of thing happens everywhere where tourists are. I would like one day to go with my brother into the exclution zone, but not for a turist atraction, but to learn about it, to learn about the disaster, about the life before and after it, about the power plant, how things work. That's why I'd like to go there like you did, with a science team, that actually knows what the're talking about. I really hope one day i'll make it happen... And i hope there will be still something left besides tourist attractions...
P.S. Sorry for any mistakes in my english, it's not my first language.
Your English is very good 👍
I've always wanted to go to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This was long before the show was a thought. I've always been intrigued by the concept of life frozen in time. The "ghosts" associated with it. What hopes and dreams were never realized. Obviously, I haven't gone because of the cost.
This was always a place I wanted too visit when I was younger, being a child and playing all the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games and reading the old soviet science fiction books, its a shame even if I did go now I wouldn't see it in its preserved state
For me it was metro 2033.
Yeah, same. It's a shame that instead of wanting to see the world like it is and learning from the past, people instead whore themselves out for a crumb of attention. It's sickening and honestly makes me feel like I was born in the wrong generation.
You should not go, you being there at all will disturb it
@@erebys21We all were brother.
@@kathrineici9811 with the active war and all I dont think theres much left to disturb
I remember seeing a TV show from my country where some celebrity was goofing around with the claw, going inside it and everything. Then, on the drive home, he apparently realized what he had done and had a panic attack.
Do you have the name of the celebrity? I want to see that.
Good. Glad they realized how dangerous what they did was
@@daasbuffy same
What happened to him next?
@@veryangryduckpl2122 dead 💀
Its so sad to me that the original way things were left behind has been so disturbed by these tours and tourists