http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com the unnatural — that too is natural Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:54:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="436" caption="photo: DOE"] [/caption] From the New York Times: THE Hanford Reach National Monument in the arid steppe of south-central Washington is a nature lover’s dream with the Columbia River flowing wide and free below chalk-white cliffs, an abundance of birds, and populations of deer, elk and ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2009/09/if-you-cant-make-it-to-chernobyl/ Today marks twenty three years since the explosion at Reactor Number 4. Otherwise, there's no news. Construction of the New Safe Confinement (the shelter for the Shelter Object) is supposed to go forward sometime in the next year or so. You might want to visit the Sarcophagus while you still can... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2009/04/chernobyl-twenty-three-years-later/ I'm from Alberta, or at least was born there. I left when I was not even two years old, and have never been back. Ever since I was an arrogant little tyke, I've held a cherished image in my mind of the place where I come from as a magical ... http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2009/04/the-great-black-north/ A couple of interesting tours of the sewage world. Now someone needs to make a series of photos following sewage through the entire length of different sewage systems. People would eat that shit up. I mean, so to speak. Open Sewers of the World Interesting Drains http://www.visitsunnychernobyl.com/2009/03/sewers-of-the-world-open-and-otherwise/ 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/