Thirty years ago, on this day, April 26th, 1986 reactor four at Chernobyl went kaboom (partial meltdown).
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 347ppm. As of 2025 it is 427ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that this was precisely the wrong time for a nuclear reactor to explode, and the absolutely terrible response at the Politburo-downwards level versus the heroics on the ground, put the lie to “glasnost” and “perestroika”, and made Gorbachev’s efforts to change the Soviet economy and society that much more difficult. I mean, he was never going to succeed, but Chernobyl was, in retrospect, kind of a nail in the coffin. It also made the pro-nuclear because of greenhouse gas arguments that much harder to make.
What I think we can learn from this is that the intersections between politics, technology, economics, culture, you name it. They’re fantastically complicated, obviously or complex. And there are times when an accident wouldn’t matter that much. I would argue that Chernobyl was exquisitely timed, and so it came to pass.
What happened next
In September 1986 a Safe Energy rally in London was held – the anti-nuke sentiment grew…
The battles over whether Chernobyl caused hundreds of deaths, 1000s of deaths, 10s of 1000s of deaths goes on.
The cultural response to Chernobyl is interesting.
The Star Chernobyl by Julie Voznesakaya.
There is the Arkady Renko book.
There is that bizarre Kenneth Royce book, Fallout.
And there is the TV show Chernobyl, which I should watch sometime,
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
April 26, 1992 – Ros Kelly abjures a carbon tax – All Our Yesterdays
April 26, 1998 – New York Times front page expose on anti-climate action by industry
April 26, 1998 – “Industrial Group Plans to Battle Climate Treaty”