Cheers, Chernobyl.

This afternoon, as part of my tourist-in-Berlin activities, I went to the DDR Museum.

The interactive museum teaches visitors about East Germany when it was the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik).

The exhibition touches on the overall history of the GDR, the infamous Berlin Wall, education, work, consumer goods, transportation, sports, leisure, daily life, media, politics, and the Stasi (state security). Much of the collection is available for viewing online.

Towards the end of my time there (shortly before washing all the interactivity off my hands and hurrying home for a work call), I was reading a wall about the environment.

Environmental protection was written into the constitution in 1968, but it was a failure in practice. The GDR was “unwilling to finance the trade-off between unit production growth and the environment.”

As the horrible state of the environment became more obvious, even to regular civilians and the naked eye, scientists were increasingly ignored.

In 1982, the Council of Ministers ordered that environmental statistics be kept confidential.

And then I saw a small photo with a caption about Chernobyl, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history, on April 26, 1986.

My brain paused briefly at sight of 26 and 86, my own birth day and year, and then I realized today was an April 26.

Chernobyl happened 31 years ago, today.

Four hundred times more radioactive material was released from Chernobyl than by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

The exhibit noted that the GDR government tried to play down the seriousness of the disaster to their citizens.

And, that following the incident, East German grocery shelves were unusually full of fresh foods — thanks to other countries refusing to accept or sell them due to risk of contamination.

What set the stage for the incident and how to measure the effects as a result are complex issues to assess.

Today, lest we forget that 21st century modern life is markedly less twisted than at other points in human history, tour companies offer visits to Chernobyl. Why?

…a host of modern phenomena — from the medicalisation of death to its industrialisation and even the distancing of graveyards from urban centres — have made it more difficult for us to experience true horror…

They offer a sense of adventure but with the reassurance of knowing that “it’s only a day trip” and life will return to normal soon.

Four days ago, people around the world marched in the name of science.

The President of the United States has appointed cabinet members hostile to the sciences. His budget includes significant cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

Why was it that the GDR was in such terrible environmental shape, in spite of having innovative and fundamental laws in support of environmental protections?

Perceived impact on economic growth:

[Since N]ature contributed supposedly nothing to economic growth, the importance of nature was correspondingly low in the GDR-politician’s and economist’s perception.

The long-term advantage of environment protection was not seen, environment protection measures were rather considered to slow down growth because of required financial outlay.

If there were accomplished environment protection measures they were only motivated by the wish to save expensive raw materials.

So… will the USA be more responsible with science and the environment than than the USSR?

Only time, and Trump, may tell.