http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com the pollution tourism blog Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:38:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Kiev is a beautiful city, a true Paris of the East, a charming metropolis whose forests of horse-chestnut trees set off the city's ancient churches and classic apartment buildings like jewels on a bed of crumpled green velvet. The trick is to come in the summertime, when a warm breeze ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/08/visit-sunny-chernobyl-afternoon-at-the-museum/ Visit Sunny Chernobyl is the name of the blog, and so today we're beginning the story, in many parts, of my adventures in the Exclusion Zone. ——— Just as you might visit Los Angeles on your way to Disneyland, you get to Chernobyl via Kiev. How you get to Kiev is up ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/07/visit-sunny-chernobyl-part-i-train-to-kiev/ Good Magazine has Eric Smillie's excellent roundup of five exquisitely trashy spots, all in the United States (except one in the Pacific Ocean). This is the first truly pollution-tourist-friendly article I've ever come across. Thanks to Adam Bolt for spotting it. The list is garbage-focussed, but they all sound like excellent ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/07/beautiful-messes/ Listmania never stops. At Neatorama I encountered a list of The Most Polluted Cities in the United States, as based on data from the American Lung Association. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles are duking it out for the title, with Pittsburgh moving to the top of the list for "short-term particle ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/07/vying-for-the-most-polluted-city-in-the-usa/ The mother of all pollution tourism itineraries has got to be the the World's Worst Polluted Places, from an environmental NGO called the Blacksmith Institute. Any yahoo can throw together a grab bag of besmirchments, but the folks at Blacksmith are professionals. Not only do they have hardcore technical criteria ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/06/pollution-tourism-listmania/ It's easy to get caught up in the romance of exotic, faraway places when planning your pollution travels. Chernobyl. Linfen. Kanpur. These names conjure the romance and excitement that we're all looking for. And what with all the air travel required (if you're from America, at least), they offer you ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/06/destination-cancer-alley/ We're introducing a new section on Visit Sunny Chernobyl today. (That's not the royal "we" there, by the way. It's the optimistic "we".) Every regular traveler (regular in that they would prefer to avoid toxic sludge, radiation, etc, while on vacation) has a list, or an idea of a list, ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/06/destinations-sitakunda/ A couple weeks ago K. and I were on vacation, and we headed down to Washington DC, my old home. Originally we had been thinking of going to Costa Rica, maybe Bogota, but then I thought of how many good friends we have in DC, and what nice guest rooms ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/05/smokestacks-over-washington/ Hello, and welcome to the blog. This is our inaugural post, perhaps the first of many. It may in the future be considered the founding document of pollution tourism. That, or an embarrassing reminder of the writing style of my early middle period. Either way, please press the "fanfare" button ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2008/04/this-is-the-dawning-of-the-age-of-pollution-tourism/