*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...
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.
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
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.
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"
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.
@@Lawrence_Talbot 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.
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.
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.
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)?
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.
@@CoachJohnMcGuirk ????????? 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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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 ❤
I just want to visit, with respect, because I have an appreciation for History and want to be a teacher one day. Chernobyl is one of the core things my teacher was passionate about. And it made me passionate to teach and go places too.
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.
@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.
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.
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
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.
@@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
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.
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.
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.
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
"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.
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.
It genuinely boggles the mind that a stupid woman like that would watch the show, book 2 flights, find a tour guide, pack her bags, fly over, go there, take her "photo", go away, fly back and return home without having doubt cross her mind a single time.
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...😔
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.
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.
@@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 .
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
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.
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.
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.
@@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 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.
@@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.
@@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.
I wonder if people do the same shit at Auschwitz; almost nudist photos and stealing memorabilia from one of the worst man-made events in history. Absolutely disrespectful
@@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.
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
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.
@@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.
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.
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'
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
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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 :)
@@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
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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
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.
@@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.
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.
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
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...
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.
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.
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.
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
THIS !! Not even just stupid but sick . Straight trash can water type of clowns. Especially her 11:46 no moral respect or self worth. Selling herself all probably for a piece of currency. I wouldn’t pay .50 €ent for her. Throw her away : used and ran through more than likely. I’m so disgusted by the disrespect and mocking of the dead sorrow pain of all these victims of this devastating event. And THIS is how a grown ass woman behaves.?? I hope she’s nobody’s parent. Cause I can only imagine how she’s raising that poor bby. I just haven’t seen something In a looooong time that made me so, just angry and hurt by the mind of my counter-parting species I’m just really upset about the disrespect of this nothing of a woman 🤦🏽♀️
Chernobyl guide here. I think, I have what to say here. You know, this video summarized the point that a lot of us will support very much. I have been involved in the Zone on-site works since 2009 and guiding from 2015. Back then, the people who came on tours were different; actually, we even advertised that not as tours, but educational visits that aimed go give a person a chance to rethink their life. At that time, there were 3-5 companies working in some meaningful scale. So there was a massive amount of domestic Ukrainian visitors. This is an important detail. A shift started somewhere in 2017, even before the HBO, which, surely gave a massive boost. The core problem has a few components. 1. Contextual connection of the visitors to the land. In a modern times, recent I mean, the vast majority of visitors are young generation, which has no contextual understanding or a personal experience of the epoch and the place, thus, not having an emotional reference, which we in our team considered the key element of respect and understanding. We could often negate this by explaining and giving stories. Not always worked. 2. Guides. When the companies got a right to have own guides (not to be accompanied by a state envoy officer of the Zone), there appeared a number of people among them with a very little knowlege and often with a wish of 'beibg cool'. There was no examination system created to certify them, all you needed is to pass exam or radiation safety, which is technically important for the work at the area, but it does not cover what you are saying. Saying politely, what I heard sometimes while passing some groups, made my ears bleed out. 3. Too many people, too many social media. People, who come here to get 'wow', not to learn, not to respect, generate content, that that or another way encourages a similar behavior. 4. Advertising as safe and extreme, such as "experience a dead city". There is a big difference between "safe" and "risks are minimized if you comply strictly with safety rules". There is a big difference between "explore a ghost city of pripyat" and "have a chance to undertsand you life and how to live that this won't happen". 5. Focus on comfort. If at the checkpoint at a tour company kiosk you can buy a funny souvenir or a glowing chernobyl condom (sic!), and you travel in a comfortable bus with a/c it is very hard to deliver a message, how serious all it is. Which it is. 6. Misunderstanding of 'safe'. Tourist routes were build on contamination maps, and if you are following these routes, you wont experience high radiation except occasional spots. Which does not mean, that sometimes it is enough to move 100 m away to find something really harsh. Whis does not mean, that long-term health effects won't appear in years if you violate safety now. I personally pointed on this all the time. Unfortunately, many did not. You know, this all has been going to a wrong direction. It should be small. It should be harsh. I has to be as such as makes you think and think much. It must be an intimate experience, after all. Guiding was for me a side job and a way to deliver that inner personal experience, as I personally have seen here waaaaayyy more than the guiding work includes. Same it was for many my colleagues from earlier generation (pre 2017, pre HBO). And... I came to conclusion that to outbeat the narrative given by wow-tours is really hard. Eventually, when war started, I just moved to TH-cam channel a d Patreon page that allows to get the proper audience, and no longer planning to return to guiding job, remaining a researcher. Sad, but I feel a relief. Perhaps, the only one thing I do not agree for 100% with is the statement that humor is inappropriate. The local humor I mean, such as that bones in the cooling tower. See, I am not advocating any jokes as a way of entertaining visitors before you give them a proper message. I just want to point attention that everywhere where work conditions are harsh, always appears a local subculture and a local type of humor - otherwise you get crazy. A major part of zone's employees stay here on 4/3...15/15 days shift, so you can imagine, how the environment affects a mind. Think about this. And trust me, local humor is very 'brutal', and it exists since 1986. Another question, that if one is not an insider, they won't understand what is the point of the joke. And trust me, getting in touch with that is like opening a portall to Hell ;) P.S. that cloth piece of helmet (not clothes) from the hospital disappeared because few my colleagues from dosimetry department got fed with idiots sticking their hands in it, so it got removed packed and buried where it has to be.
"P.S. that cloth piece of helmet (not clothes) from the hospital disappeared because few my colleagues from dosimetry department got fed with idiots sticking their hands in it, so it got removed packed and buried where it has to be." That's a relief honestly.
@@TheGrimravager there are more things like this. A metal disk covering a Gigaspot near the stairs of the shopping center in Pripyat. I mean, it is VERY bad spot. Guides have been sticking hands to it and letting others. With SBM-20-based devices, aha. My mate who works in dosimetry dept. marked it by standards and installed a stripy signalling tripod over. What do you think? In a few days it was thrown away. Needed to deal andministatively after that, finally they understood. But everyone was so angry - an attraction got prohibited.
Really sad that the vandalism and idiots touching stuff all willy nilly not thinking of the health risks it could provide in doing so and that workers has to step in and remove things due to those people. While I've always been loosely interested in visiting and the series havong peaked my interest in doing so one time in the future as a learning and "wow" with respect for radiation and the areas history. As a lover of history it saddens me that people are so disrespectful towards sites that should be preserved and not treated like some amusement park attraction.
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.
@@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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@logicplague 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.
@@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.
Early, before they had tourism, there was a TH-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 TH-cam very suddenly, never to return.
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.
@@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 TH-camrs. Fun times before the miniseries and all the tourists came.
We booked a tour a Chernobyl a while before the series, then the series released about half a month before we went. I have to say though we had Geiger counters and a whole body dose counter. And we were also stressed the importance of leaving everything as it was. You look but don't touch, and that piece of fabric that was next to that logbook was there, was part of the fireman's clothing that were first on the scene in the hospital
@Samiya Masih but also to be genuine about the level and dosage of the radiation you are getting and not just flashing a number and saying “that’s dangerous”
@Samiya Masih Safe and respectful tours are actually a crucial source of income for people in the area. The tour group I went with (pre the mini series) has already started up limited tours back into the area, because they provide supplies to the people who are living in the exclusion zone, and they can't do that without funding from the tours. Of course it's for personal gratification, in the same way visiting Pompeii or Auswitzh is. That doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile and doesn't provide benefit. Tourism is a massive source of income for some areas, without which they really suffer. But it needs to be done respectfully and safely.
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.
What's worse about the disaster tourists, more specifically the ones who take hot objects, is that they are most likely going to be the ones to get terminally ill and either try to sue for compensation or do some "go fund me" thing to help pay for their stupidity. It's one thing to want to have guides taking people around, but these guides should also have their ground rules and also know the dangers of the area as well. All of my ranting aside, I can't wait for the next video! Thank you Kyle, and Facility staff, for the great content 🙂👍
The tour guides are lenient then only because there's no lawsuits coming their way yet. And it's probably not going to be a success because of the international nature. But all these don't matter as of now because of the third disaster.
That's actually an excellent point. I think particularly if they're American, certain tourists might be even more incline towards itchy litigation trigger fingers. I can say this as I am indeed American.
I feel sorry for the poor folks that are sitting next to one of these idiots on the bus, the 'souvenir' that they brought back sitting in their backpack as they take it to show a friend.
I don't think people are taught about radiation contamination and exposure before they go. Because clearly they dont know or don't care. And as someone in Rad Protection, that makes me mad. Thank you for everything you teach Kyle! I appreciate it.
People always assume that they're invincible for some reason. They might even believe they have some phony cure to radiation, like what we saw during COVID with homebrew remedies and COVID-deniers. And the tour companies don't care. They'll have gotten their money and retired before the symptoms start showing up.
What? If they coming to see this because of the movie how can people not know about how bad radioactive material is bad. The whole movie or mini series gives references to radioactive material. It’s pure ignorance on the tourist part and that willingness to be the 15 minutes of fame personally for social media.
The fact no deaths have happened since 1986, really shows the impressive response to such a tragic event and the sacrifice needed to achieve it. Defacing the region is like desecrating a cemetery or memorial.
@@ThatPianoNoob The UN report on Chornobyl death rates makes it very clear that beyond the few dozen deaths that can clearly be attributed to the disaster, it's far less easy in other cases. The most likely type of cancer to occur due to a nuclear disaster comes from iodine, which is easily combated with iodine tablets, and any cancers of this type that occur are very treatable. Whether or not the strontium and cesium that ended up in the soil had any significant effect is the trickier question, and considering that the statistics we have show no significant change in excess mortality, the answer is probably 'no'. The fall of the Soviet Union and the associated skyrocketing cases of alcoholism, drug use and suicides make the Chornobyl disaster almost seem like child's play.
Ngl it’s sad we live in a world where some people don’t have respect for historical places such as Chernobyl and what happened there that they go there to use this disaster that changed the lives of so many people and use it for likes and attention instead of it’s purpose of teaching people the dangers of mismanagement and poor safety precautions when it comes to nuclear power. This is lowkey why I fully understand when urban explorers hide locations they visit as some people lack common sense and respect for places that may have history and will deface and destroy things because they lack respect and decency.
There’s something strangely poetic, albeit somewhat unfortunate about the social media cancer that is influencers going into such a radioactive place and suffering the consequences of their blatant ignorance
@@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457 you have a point. who would even be dumb enough to bring something radioactive home? that`s just straight out setting a dumb enough tourist up for an earlier cancer diagnosis.
@@mikatu It's like any other dangerous thing: it's safe if you know what you're doing and follow relevant procedures, wear PPE, do what guides/instructors say, etc. As for why... You can watch all the media you want about it, but nothing will compare to actually visiting ground zero. Same as the 9/11 memorial or any number of other sites. I crave that experience. It makes it real. I need to make things real, in any number of ways in my life. Sometimes it hurts, but it's how I grow, learn, and heal. It's who I am.
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.
@@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
The fact that contaminated objects could be found and taken ,and then possibly be used to intentionally hurt others unknowingly should be reason enough to prohibit entry into these areas😢
I'm very impressed with Kyle's maturity. He knows when to have fun, and he knows when to sober and take things seriously, even reverently. That is a skill that is not easy to come by in the current environment of the internet. High respect.
To some extent having both silly fun and serious solemn videos on one channel is a bit of a risk. It might be prudent to split them into two channels that provide more consistency in tone, but that would mean less consistency in upload frequency to both channels. All of it involves good science communication whether silly or serious so fortunately, having it all on one channel just happens to work.
As a science and history lover, I’ve always wanted to visit the area. It’s such a fascinating place. That said, I was raised right, and live by the “leave no trace” ideals. There are plenty of photos(not for instagram, but as a photojournalist) you can take, while staying relatively safe, and not needing to stage anything. The surreal state of how things were left is much more intriguing than staging fake scenes.
This reminds me of some of the incidents we had with parks here in Colorado a few years back. Here we have a travertine lake called Hanging Lake, and while I haven't been it is beautiful in the pictures alone. Aside from the clear water of the lake, the other notable feature is a downed tree that sits across the water. There are clearly posted rules stating that there is no swimming, and you need to stay off the downed tree. When Colorado's population grew, there were all sorts of issues with swimmers, and people getting on the tree for a picture. So many people began going that Colorado Parks & Wildlife had to set up timed visits to avoid the fights the broke out over parking, and ease the stress on the environment. Eventually CPW would have to set up a bus service. Then in southern Colorado where we have the native settlements that are built into rock walls, some people decided to set up a scavenger hunt, and randomly started painting stuff at the settlement. CPW had to clean that up. Then we had other incidents with people spray painting trees, and rocks in some of the parks which CPW then had to clean up as well. I'm pretty sure this level of selfish stupidity is why all the CPW game and parks tags are so pricey now. Said to one guy I was talking to about this: "Stupid is expensive".
The fact that people act like this is so frustrating. And also, fighting over parking spaces. Like seriously people? they’re acting like 4 year olds, or even worse actually, because at least kids seem to learn from their mistakes, while those types of people never learn
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.
Thank you Kyle, for speaking out about this and spreading awareness for people that don't know how to behave respectfully. I also thank you for documenting your journey while also being mindful of your surroundings. More people need to hear and see this.
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)?
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
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.
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.
Stuff like this always furthers my belief that social media was a mistake, while it keeps you linked with family, etc. it also causes things like this time and time again
There is no "good" or "bad" tech, only choices in how an individual (or organized group) uses it. Every single technology can be abused. Every single technology IS abused. Every single technology has both many proper users and many abusers. Many social media influences are genuinely good people who help others to make better choices and to belittle them is a disgusting dismissal of every individual they have helped. Don't be a coward who puts a universal label on a group just because of the ones that stand out for their bad choices. It takes guts to be better and I know you are better than that.
Humans as a individual are often remarkable smart, Humans as a Species is incredible stupid. Even so clear with Social Media, onto it self a great idear, some people do great things with it, but in general its abused and misused by the masses. Humankind as a whole is doomed by its own doing. The Smarter we become, the stupider we seem to behave.
I actually went to Chernobyl in the summer 2019, on one of the official tours, it was a two day tour.. while i was interested in Chernobyl for decades, most of my tour consisted of tv show fans.. So i rented a Geiger counter and tried to make sure that atleast some of the people I ended up being with in our own small sub-group, were safe and didn't do too much damage either to the surroundings or themselves
And while tour guides were a bit more cautious back then, we still entered places that had high radiation aswell as buildings, that you could feel that the floor is about to give way if you put your full body weight on them. I was told some of the places we visited, we were not allowed to visit..
You probably saved the lives of those people, not as in they would have died as soon as the plane landed, but you preventing them from entering highly radioactive sites probably saved them from suffering through cancer down the line.
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.
This reminds me of when I went on a tour of a concentration camp during a student exchange trip to Germany. I was in high school at the time and no one had to tell me that it was a somber and education experience, you just feel it. I knew not to screw around or make a joke of it even though I was there was 30 other kids. I find it hard to believe that these "influencers" aren't being disrespectful on purpose.
On the exact opposite side of the spectrum, I (a german, by the way) went to the Holocaust rememberance Center yad vashem in jerusalem on a class trip to Israel recently, and, I kid you not, saw a lady legimitatly TAKE A SHIT behind one of the trees dedicated to the "righteous among the nations", as in people that helped save jews! I am still absolutely baffled at how you could do such a utterly disrespectful thing! I locked eyes with for a second upon spotting here, and she didn't look bothered by it at all! And there wasn't a lack of toilets on site either, which makes me think this was an intentional act of disrespect, something that I just cannot wrap my head around!
Unfortunately things like that do happen at concentration camps sites. I'm from Poland and Auschwitz has A LOT visitors every year and even if most are respectful you will find idiots there, taking selfies and acting obnoxiously loud. There was once even circulating a picture of a child who climbed up INSIDE on of the cremation ovens. Which means some parent allowed that or even told the kid to do it. And that is beyond messed up! I can't even comprehend how can you come up with such an idea 🤦♀️ In today's day and age people REALLY are lacking common sense and basic empathy.
I remember that I once found an old gas mask in a locker. I told my mom and she instantly asked if I put it on, I didn't. She said I must never put it on because there can still be dangerous materials left in the mask. The way she responded stuck with me and made me cautious for really old equipment.
What would also help is law. They could pass a law that you need to be certified to do tours in the zone, and you need to adhere to strict guidelines of how to operate them. As well as fines for incidents that must be reported to the tour guides, hopefully so the responsibility of that fine falls on the tourists to not touch or do anything illegal.
It's so frustrating that people could have watched that whole mini-series and literally learned nothing from it. I adored the show, it was fantastically done, and I felt it showed true respect to everyone involved in the clean-up while also bringing their story into the light. It also showed many of the true horrors that were caused by such an accident. I watched the show with my parents, and my mother had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was going through Chemotherapy at the time, and needed Radiation therapy after that. Several times throughout the show my dad and I had to talk her down from near panic attacks because she kept believing she would have similar side-affects from her scheduled radiation therapy. What she's going through is bad enough, for me to learn that people are traveling to Chernobyl for fun and posing for little model shots, is sickening. I will never understand how people could be so willing to kill themselves for clout.
The difference between radiotherapy and exposure to radiation is that the radiation in radiotherapy is focusused to only/mostly target the tumor, whilst the healthy tissue gets a dose that is as low as possible
Some people will want to do it exactly because of this video we're commenting under. Or because it makes people like you angry. Accept it and move on. Or are you planning on living 300 years and you can spend your time in frustration over things like that?
@@chrisakaschulbus4903 Oh please. That is a ridiculous thing to say. Of course I don’t let it run my life, I don’t wake up thinking about all the frustrations and horrors of all the idiots of the world. But I’m also a normal human with emotions and feelings, and I can speak my mind about a video I had recently watched, and then move on with life. Any random comment I make on youtube doesn’t mean my whole world revolves around what I said. I’m just speaking my current emotions. For example, your comment frustrated me enough to reply, but as soon as I’m done typing, I’m gonna go back to reading the book that I was enjoying and not give it another thought.
@@Alskasaur My question was more about, why spend any time on it. But usually people who mention stuff they never think about think about them. "Your insults aren't working, my prove is me saying it" ... but before we get into that, lets talk about latent heat and the refrigeration cycle.
My interest in Chernobyl began in (I think) 2017 when I was a post on Imgur about the NSC being completed. It wasn't a big interest at the time, but when DirectTV aired the first episode of the mini series as a sort of preview I'd already watched two or three documentaries. I was and still am amazed by the mostly accurate retelling of events; even when accuracy was sacrificed for drama (such as the creative liberties taken with the special effects makeup) it feels respectful, especially at the very end of the last episode where they remind the viewers that this was a very real disaster and not made up for their entertainment. I honestly don't know how someone could watch that series and think "I should take an almost nude photo there" or "I should take something from the hospital basement home with me". Having lost loved ones to cancer, I don't refer to anything as cancer lightly. Cancer isn't another word for "cringy" or "bad"; it's something so horrible that it takes and destroys lives indiscriminately and without mercy. I hesitate to call influencer culture a cancer, but in this case the influencers may literally be giving people cancer with their carelessness and stupidity.
I honestly think the Ukrainian government should close Pripyat for mass tourism and only allow entrance to very specific people or groups after a careful background screening. An area like Pripyat and the Chernobyl power plant should not be desecrated for the sake of likes. These are places where people died, they deserve to be treated with the utmost respect.
@@arran4285 the thing is they still could but make it far more regulated which means they can also charge more for it. set up fines for tresspassing and all that junk. they can make plenty of money still
It boggles my mind that people hear about "irradiated wasteland Chernobyl", buy plane tickets, charter a tour guide, finally reach a site that is Very heavily controlled and Very clearly a disaster site... and grab something to take home. I cannot comprehend how you get that far and forget the entire reason it's a tourist site in the first place.
The fact that so many people can disconnect themselves so entirely from the reality of a disaster or a genocide or any other massively destructive thing is really screwed up. The lack or sympathy, empathy, or common sense is what always drags humanity down to its lowest points
That’s wild. As if the show didn’t depict how extremely dangerous this area came to be. The fact people (which we can establish that the majority were fans of the show) come here and act as they did is
a lot of the influencers probably didn't watch the show, but instead did what influencers do and did stuff at Chernobyl because of the attention that Chernobyl was getting.
The same people are doing this in Auschwitz like “hey followers in this chamber people died, let’s take a duck face photo”. Honestly disgusting these people should deserve the Darwin Award. 🇨🇭🇩🇪 You are a good person for spreading awareness Dankeschön.
@@disposabull "of this generation" Can you specify which one? Or rather I'm interested to hear how the rest of the crap that was 20th century was great in your opinion. Surely it's not just an entitlement talking, right?😅
*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.
@@Lawrence_Talbot 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.
@@CoachJohnMcGuirk ?????????
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.
@@CoachJohnMcGuirk doesn't sound like that to me. Tours are just fine when done correctly.
@@CoachJohnMcGuirk 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.
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.
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 just want to visit, with respect, because I have an appreciation for History and want to be a teacher one day. Chernobyl is one of the core things my teacher was passionate about. And it made me passionate to teach and go places too.
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
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
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
@@MisterKrakens no stalkers shouldn't exist either, the only people going there should be scientists and rehabilitation programs
@@MisterKrakens 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
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…
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?
"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.
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.
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 genuinely boggles the mind that a stupid woman like that would watch the show, book 2 flights, find a tour guide, pack her bags, fly over, go there, take her "photo", go away, fly back and return home without having doubt cross her mind a single time.
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…
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
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
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
I don't get how you can be wealthy enough to visit enough but dumb enough to do stuff like this.
People are morons.
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.
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 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.
I wonder if people do the same shit at Auschwitz; almost nudist photos and stealing memorabilia from one of the worst man-made events in history. Absolutely disrespectful
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
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.
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.
Props to the Stalkers for helping care of the place. True conservationists. Wish i could have seen it prior.
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'
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
Momma always said: "Stupid is what stupid does".
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.
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
@Lurking Carrier 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.
@@ShadeAKAhayate what exactly are you talking about? What about it is a simulacrum?
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.
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?
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?
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?
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.
pripyat and the chernobyl zone has always been so fascinating to me. it sucks that its been changed so much.
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
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
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
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
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.
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 😂😂😂
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
Moral of the story: We can never have nice or precious things because people are stupid.
THIS !! Not even just stupid but sick . Straight trash can water type of clowns. Especially her 11:46 no moral respect or self worth. Selling herself all probably for a piece of currency. I wouldn’t pay .50 €ent for her. Throw her away : used and ran through more than likely. I’m so disgusted by the disrespect and mocking of the dead sorrow pain of all these victims of this devastating event. And THIS is how a grown ass woman behaves.?? I hope she’s nobody’s parent. Cause I can only imagine how she’s raising that poor bby. I just haven’t seen something In a looooong time that made me so, just angry and hurt by the mind of my counter-parting species I’m just really upset about the disrespect of this nothing of a woman 🤦🏽♀️
Chernobyl guide here. I think, I have what to say here.
You know, this video summarized the point that a lot of us will support very much.
I have been involved in the Zone on-site works since 2009 and guiding from 2015. Back then, the people who came on tours were different; actually, we even advertised that not as tours, but educational visits that aimed go give a person a chance to rethink their life. At that time, there were 3-5 companies working in some meaningful scale. So there was a massive amount of domestic Ukrainian visitors. This is an important detail.
A shift started somewhere in 2017, even before the HBO, which, surely gave a massive boost.
The core problem has a few components.
1. Contextual connection of the visitors to the land. In a modern times, recent I mean, the vast majority of visitors are young generation, which has no contextual understanding or a personal experience of the epoch and the place, thus, not having an emotional reference, which we in our team considered the key element of respect and understanding. We could often negate this by explaining and giving stories. Not always worked.
2. Guides. When the companies got a right to have own guides (not to be accompanied by a state envoy officer of the Zone), there appeared a number of people among them with a very little knowlege and often with a wish of 'beibg cool'. There was no examination system created to certify them, all you needed is to pass exam or radiation safety, which is technically important for the work at the area, but it does not cover what you are saying. Saying politely, what I heard sometimes while passing some groups, made my ears bleed out.
3. Too many people, too many social media. People, who come here to get 'wow', not to learn, not to respect, generate content, that that or another way encourages a similar behavior.
4. Advertising as safe and extreme, such as "experience a dead city". There is a big difference between "safe" and "risks are minimized if you comply strictly with safety rules". There is a big difference between "explore a ghost city of pripyat" and "have a chance to undertsand you life and how to live that this won't happen".
5. Focus on comfort. If at the checkpoint at a tour company kiosk you can buy a funny souvenir or a glowing chernobyl condom (sic!), and you travel in a comfortable bus with a/c it is very hard to deliver a message, how serious all it is. Which it is.
6. Misunderstanding of 'safe'. Tourist routes were build on contamination maps, and if you are following these routes, you wont experience high radiation except occasional spots. Which does not mean, that sometimes it is enough to move 100 m away to find something really harsh. Whis does not mean, that long-term health effects won't appear in years if you violate safety now.
I personally pointed on this all the time. Unfortunately, many did not.
You know, this all has been going to a wrong direction. It should be small. It should be harsh. I has to be as such as makes you think and think much.
It must be an intimate experience, after all. Guiding was for me a side job and a way to deliver that inner personal experience, as I personally have seen here waaaaayyy more than the guiding work includes. Same it was for many my colleagues from earlier generation (pre 2017, pre HBO). And... I came to conclusion that to outbeat the narrative given by wow-tours is really hard. Eventually, when war started, I just moved to TH-cam channel a d Patreon page that allows to get the proper audience, and no longer planning to return to guiding job, remaining a researcher. Sad, but I feel a relief.
Perhaps, the only one thing I do not agree for 100% with is the statement that humor is inappropriate. The local humor I mean, such as that bones in the cooling tower. See, I am not advocating any jokes as a way of entertaining visitors before you give them a proper message. I just want to point attention that everywhere where work conditions are harsh, always appears a local subculture and a local type of humor - otherwise you get crazy. A major part of zone's employees stay here on 4/3...15/15 days shift, so you can imagine, how the environment affects a mind. Think about this. And trust me, local humor is very 'brutal', and it exists since 1986.
Another question, that if one is not an insider, they won't understand what is the point of the joke. And trust me, getting in touch with that is like opening a portall to Hell ;)
P.S. that cloth piece of helmet (not clothes) from the hospital disappeared because few my colleagues from dosimetry department got fed with idiots sticking their hands in it, so it got removed packed and buried where it has to be.
Thank youfor sharing your thoughts here.
"P.S. that cloth piece of helmet (not clothes) from the hospital disappeared because few my colleagues from dosimetry department got fed with idiots sticking their hands in it, so it got removed packed and buried where it has to be."
That's a relief honestly.
@@TheGrimravager there are more things like this. A metal disk covering a Gigaspot near the stairs of the shopping center in Pripyat. I mean, it is VERY bad spot. Guides have been sticking hands to it and letting others. With SBM-20-based devices, aha.
My mate who works in dosimetry dept. marked it by standards and installed a stripy signalling tripod over. What do you think? In a few days it was thrown away. Needed to deal andministatively after that, finally they understood. But everyone was so angry - an attraction got prohibited.
Really sad that the vandalism and idiots touching stuff all willy nilly not thinking of the health risks it could provide in doing so and that workers has to step in and remove things due to those people.
While I've always been loosely interested in visiting and the series havong peaked my interest in doing so one time in the future as a learning and "wow" with respect for radiation and the areas history. As a lover of history it saddens me that people are so disrespectful towards sites that should be preserved and not treated like some amusement park attraction.
@@ChernobylFamily Thank you for sharing your excellent insight and for the work you do on the site. I hope all is well for you.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@logicplague 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.
@@logicplagueyou 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.
Early, before they had tourism, there was a TH-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 TH-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 TH-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 TH-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?
We booked a tour a Chernobyl a while before the series, then the series released about half a month before we went.
I have to say though we had Geiger counters and a whole body dose counter. And we were also stressed the importance of leaving everything as it was. You look but don't touch, and that piece of fabric that was next to that logbook was there, was part of the fireman's clothing that were first on the scene in the hospital
@Samiya Masih what if everyone was respectful of the hazards and to keep the place intact? Is that what you mean?
@Samiya Masih but also to be genuine about the level and dosage of the radiation you are getting and not just flashing a number and saying “that’s dangerous”
@Samiya Masih Safe and respectful tours are actually a crucial source of income for people in the area. The tour group I went with (pre the mini series) has already started up limited tours back into the area, because they provide supplies to the people who are living in the exclusion zone, and they can't do that without funding from the tours.
Of course it's for personal gratification, in the same way visiting Pompeii or Auswitzh is. That doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile and doesn't provide benefit. Tourism is a massive source of income for some areas, without which they really suffer. But it needs to be done respectfully and safely.
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.
What's worse about the disaster tourists, more specifically the ones who take hot objects, is that they are most likely going to be the ones to get terminally ill and either try to sue for compensation or do some "go fund me" thing to help pay for their stupidity.
It's one thing to want to have guides taking people around, but these guides should also have their ground rules and also know the dangers of the area as well.
All of my ranting aside, I can't wait for the next video! Thank you Kyle, and Facility staff, for the great content 🙂👍
The tour guides are lenient then only because there's no lawsuits coming their way yet. And it's probably not going to be a success because of the international nature.
But all these don't matter as of now because of the third disaster.
That's actually an excellent point. I think particularly if they're American, certain tourists might be even more incline towards itchy litigation trigger fingers.
I can say this as I am indeed American.
I feel sorry for the poor folks that are sitting next to one of these idiots on the bus, the 'souvenir' that they brought back sitting in their backpack as they take it to show a friend.
I don't think people are taught about radiation contamination and exposure before they go. Because clearly they dont know or don't care. And as someone in Rad Protection, that makes me mad. Thank you for everything you teach Kyle! I appreciate it.
People always assume that they're invincible for some reason. They might even believe they have some phony cure to radiation, like what we saw during COVID with homebrew remedies and COVID-deniers. And the tour companies don't care. They'll have gotten their money and retired before the symptoms start showing up.
Really strange to not know any of that but want to visit the Zone.
Well if they don’t know about the dangers of radiation. They will soon find out later in life then they will regret it.
Heyyo, looking into entering the Nuclear myself. Even before everything, it was supposed to be common sense that anything nuclear was a no go.
What? If they coming to see this because of the movie how can people not know about how bad radioactive material is bad. The whole movie or mini series gives references to radioactive material. It’s pure ignorance on the tourist part and that willingness to be the 15 minutes of fame personally for social media.
The fact no deaths have happened since 1986, really shows the impressive response to such a tragic event and the sacrifice needed to achieve it.
Defacing the region is like desecrating a cemetery or memorial.
Eh, your ignoring all the cancer rates in Belarus. The winds blew most of it into Belarus.
@@zeitgeistx5239 the radiation cloud literally covered a good portion of the globe by the time the incident was admitted internationally.
That there are no confirmed deaths does not mean there were no deaths. UDSSR was great in playing things down.
No deaths from immediate radiation exposure*
A very important asterisk there..
@@ThatPianoNoob The UN report on Chornobyl death rates makes it very clear that beyond the few dozen deaths that can clearly be attributed to the disaster, it's far less easy in other cases. The most likely type of cancer to occur due to a nuclear disaster comes from iodine, which is easily combated with iodine tablets, and any cancers of this type that occur are very treatable.
Whether or not the strontium and cesium that ended up in the soil had any significant effect is the trickier question, and considering that the statistics we have show no significant change in excess mortality, the answer is probably 'no'. The fall of the Soviet Union and the associated skyrocketing cases of alcoholism, drug use and suicides make the Chornobyl disaster almost seem like child's play.
Ngl it’s sad we live in a world where some people don’t have respect for historical places such as Chernobyl and what happened there that they go there to use this disaster that changed the lives of so many people and use it for likes and attention instead of it’s purpose of teaching people the dangers of mismanagement and poor safety precautions when it comes to nuclear power.
This is lowkey why I fully understand when urban explorers hide locations they visit as some people lack common sense and respect for places that may have history and will deface and destroy things because they lack respect and decency.
There’s something strangely poetic, albeit somewhat unfortunate about the social media cancer that is influencers going into such a radioactive place and suffering the consequences of their blatant ignorance
Charles Darwin: _"Ah yes, natural selection at it's finest."_
More sad rlly, Knowing the amount of effort older generations made to stop chernobyl.
@@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457 you have a point. who would even be dumb enough to bring something radioactive home? that`s just straight out setting a dumb enough tourist up for an earlier cancer diagnosis.
funny enough they’ll also get cancer from taking shit from there
I want to visit someday, but people need to be respectful and, quite honestly, just "not stupid" about it. Thank you for pointing this out!
Yeah, same here. I feel like visiting places like that you have to be respectful and mindful of your surroundings.
@@clxstrophxbic it's war here right now, do you know this?
Visit for what? The area was abandoned for a reason, and while people say "it is safe" everybody knows it is not safe.
@@mikatu I hate that I cannot like you comment a hundred times.
@@mikatu It's like any other dangerous thing: it's safe if you know what you're doing and follow relevant procedures, wear PPE, do what guides/instructors say, etc.
As for why... You can watch all the media you want about it, but nothing will compare to actually visiting ground zero. Same as the 9/11 memorial or any number of other sites. I crave that experience. It makes it real. I need to make things real, in any number of ways in my life. Sometimes it hurts, but it's how I grow, learn, and heal. It's who I am.
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
The fact that contaminated objects could be found and taken ,and then possibly be used to intentionally hurt others unknowingly should be reason enough to prohibit entry into these areas😢
I'm very impressed with Kyle's maturity. He knows when to have fun, and he knows when to sober and take things seriously, even reverently. That is a skill that is not easy to come by in the current environment of the internet. High respect.
It's sad though when we live in an age where we praise people for behaviour that should simply be the norm, instinctive even 😔
@@deezelfairy ok but can you imagine a logan paul video about going to chernobyl, it would be fucking horrific.
@@lt3880 And then a follow-up prank video where he fakes terminal illness from the radiation exposure.
To some extent having both silly fun and serious solemn videos on one channel is a bit of a risk. It might be prudent to split them into two channels that provide more consistency in tone, but that would mean less consistency in upload frequency to both channels. All of it involves good science communication whether silly or serious so fortunately, having it all on one channel just happens to work.
John Oliver is the exception not the rule
Nazis like Trump are the normal throughout history thanks to Religion
As a science and history lover, I’ve always wanted to visit the area. It’s such a fascinating place. That said, I was raised right, and live by the “leave no trace” ideals. There are plenty of photos(not for instagram, but as a photojournalist) you can take, while staying relatively safe, and not needing to stage anything. The surreal state of how things were left is much more intriguing than staging fake scenes.
This reminds me of some of the incidents we had with parks here in Colorado a few years back. Here we have a travertine lake called Hanging Lake, and while I haven't been it is beautiful in the pictures alone. Aside from the clear water of the lake, the other notable feature is a downed tree that sits across the water. There are clearly posted rules stating that there is no swimming, and you need to stay off the downed tree. When Colorado's population grew, there were all sorts of issues with swimmers, and people getting on the tree for a picture. So many people began going that Colorado Parks & Wildlife had to set up timed visits to avoid the fights the broke out over parking, and ease the stress on the environment. Eventually CPW would have to set up a bus service. Then in southern Colorado where we have the native settlements that are built into rock walls, some people decided to set up a scavenger hunt, and randomly started painting stuff at the settlement. CPW had to clean that up. Then we had other incidents with people spray painting trees, and rocks in some of the parks which CPW then had to clean up as well. I'm pretty sure this level of selfish stupidity is why all the CPW game and parks tags are so pricey now. Said to one guy I was talking to about this: "Stupid is expensive".
The fact that people act like this is so frustrating. And also, fighting over parking spaces. Like seriously people? they’re acting like 4 year olds, or even worse actually, because at least kids seem to learn from their mistakes, while those types of people never learn
Yep how my small town in WA turned into. The more people the more destruction and lack of care.
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.
Thank you Kyle, for speaking out about this and spreading awareness for people that don't know how to behave respectfully. I also thank you for documenting your journey while also being mindful of your surroundings. More people need to hear and see this.
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)?
Instagram Influencers did nothing wrong! *poses like Griffith and takes a selfie.*
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.
Still plenty of contaminated matter to pick up and bring into town/on the plane/to your home @kaiserfranzjoseph9311
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 💀
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!
Stuff like this always furthers my belief that social media was a mistake, while it keeps you linked with family, etc. it also causes things like this time and time again
There is no "good" or "bad" tech, only choices in how an individual (or organized group) uses it.
Every single technology can be abused.
Every single technology IS abused.
Every single technology has both many proper users and many abusers.
Many social media influences are genuinely good people who help others to make better choices and to belittle them is a disgusting dismissal of every individual they have helped.
Don't be a coward who puts a universal label on a group just because of the ones that stand out for their bad choices. It takes guts to be better and I know you are better than that.
the means do not matter, for stupity in our species is constant
-Charles Darwin probably
It's not social media, it's incompetency of people and the greed of tour leaders
Social Media was indeed a mistake. Even if it has some advantages, it damaged our society.
Humans as a individual are often remarkable smart, Humans as a Species is incredible stupid.
Even so clear with Social Media, onto it self a great idear, some people do great things with it, but in general its abused and misused by the masses.
Humankind as a whole is doomed by its own doing.
The Smarter we become, the stupider we seem to behave.
I actually went to Chernobyl in the summer 2019, on one of the official tours, it was a two day tour.. while i was interested in Chernobyl for decades, most of my tour consisted of tv show fans.. So i rented a Geiger counter and tried to make sure that atleast some of the people I ended up being with in our own small sub-group, were safe and didn't do too much damage either to the surroundings or themselves
And while tour guides were a bit more cautious back then, we still entered places that had high radiation aswell as buildings, that you could feel that the floor is about to give way if you put your full body weight on them. I was told some of the places we visited, we were not allowed to visit..
You probably saved the lives of those people, not as in they would have died as soon as the plane landed, but you preventing them from entering highly radioactive sites probably saved them from suffering through cancer down the line.
@@ieatleadpaintchips There were still radioactive places we entered, but how you behave in them also makes a difference 🤣
I swear social media influencers have completely lost their sense of conscience.
They never had any to begin with.
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.
This reminds me of when I went on a tour of a concentration camp during a student exchange trip to Germany. I was in high school at the time and no one had to tell me that it was a somber and education experience, you just feel it. I knew not to screw around or make a joke of it even though I was there was 30 other kids. I find it hard to believe that these "influencers" aren't being disrespectful on purpose.
On the exact opposite side of the spectrum, I (a german, by the way) went to the Holocaust rememberance Center yad vashem in jerusalem on a class trip to Israel recently, and, I kid you not, saw a lady legimitatly TAKE A SHIT behind one of the trees dedicated to the "righteous among the nations", as in people that helped save jews! I am still absolutely baffled at how you could do such a utterly disrespectful thing! I locked eyes with for a second upon spotting here, and she didn't look bothered by it at all! And there wasn't a lack of toilets on site either, which makes me think this was an intentional act of disrespect, something that I just cannot wrap my head around!
Unfortunately things like that do happen at concentration camps sites. I'm from Poland and Auschwitz has A LOT visitors every year and even if most are respectful you will find idiots there, taking selfies and acting obnoxiously loud. There was once even circulating a picture of a child who climbed up INSIDE on of the cremation ovens. Which means some parent allowed that or even told the kid to do it. And that is beyond messed up! I can't even comprehend how can you come up with such an idea 🤦♀️ In today's day and age people REALLY are lacking common sense and basic empathy.
They're being neglectful and ignorant, though on purpose is another question. But neglect doesn't need to be purposeful. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I remember that I once found an old gas mask in a locker. I told my mom and she instantly asked if I put it on, I didn't. She said I must never put it on because there can still be dangerous materials left in the mask.
The way she responded stuck with me and made me cautious for really old equipment.
I was not so smart, same situation but I put mine on- and it was the old asbestos filled filters
@@whibby Weren't things better in the past, when asbestos wasnt yet dangerous and was everywhere :D
@@FinUgShiet Um, is that a weird way of saying "Ignorance is bliss, although your death won't be any less painful"? Or something?
@@JarieSuicune u got it :)
It all starts with proper education to respect places like this. Thank you Kyle for sharing this series.
no amount of education can stop human stupidity.
What would also help is law. They could pass a law that you need to be certified to do tours in the zone, and you need to adhere to strict guidelines of how to operate them. As well as fines for incidents that must be reported to the tour guides, hopefully so the responsibility of that fine falls on the tourists to not touch or do anything illegal.
Education is BS
If you go into the most radiated place on earth without a Geiger counter then that’s natural selection at work.
It's so frustrating that people could have watched that whole mini-series and literally learned nothing from it. I adored the show, it was fantastically done, and I felt it showed true respect to everyone involved in the clean-up while also bringing their story into the light. It also showed many of the true horrors that were caused by such an accident.
I watched the show with my parents, and my mother had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was going through Chemotherapy at the time, and needed Radiation therapy after that. Several times throughout the show my dad and I had to talk her down from near panic attacks because she kept believing she would have similar side-affects from her scheduled radiation therapy. What she's going through is bad enough, for me to learn that people are traveling to Chernobyl for fun and posing for little model shots, is sickening. I will never understand how people could be so willing to kill themselves for clout.
The difference between radiotherapy and exposure to radiation is that the radiation in radiotherapy is focusused to only/mostly target the tumor, whilst the healthy tissue gets a dose that is as low as possible
This! Absolutely this!
Some people will want to do it exactly because of this video we're commenting under. Or because it makes people like you angry.
Accept it and move on. Or are you planning on living 300 years and you can spend your time in frustration over things like that?
@@chrisakaschulbus4903 Oh please. That is a ridiculous thing to say. Of course I don’t let it run my life, I don’t wake up thinking about all the frustrations and horrors of all the idiots of the world. But I’m also a normal human with emotions and feelings, and I can speak my mind about a video I had recently watched, and then move on with life.
Any random comment I make on youtube doesn’t mean my whole world revolves around what I said. I’m just speaking my current emotions. For example, your comment frustrated me enough to reply, but as soon as I’m done typing, I’m gonna go back to reading the book that I was enjoying and not give it another thought.
@@Alskasaur My question was more about, why spend any time on it. But usually people who mention stuff they never think about think about them.
"Your insults aren't working, my prove is me saying it" ... but before we get into that, lets talk about latent heat and the refrigeration cycle.
I knew that social media can often be toxic, but I had no idea it's also irradiated!
My interest in Chernobyl began in (I think) 2017 when I was a post on Imgur about the NSC being completed. It wasn't a big interest at the time, but when DirectTV aired the first episode of the mini series as a sort of preview I'd already watched two or three documentaries. I was and still am amazed by the mostly accurate retelling of events; even when accuracy was sacrificed for drama (such as the creative liberties taken with the special effects makeup) it feels respectful, especially at the very end of the last episode where they remind the viewers that this was a very real disaster and not made up for their entertainment. I honestly don't know how someone could watch that series and think "I should take an almost nude photo there" or "I should take something from the hospital basement home with me".
Having lost loved ones to cancer, I don't refer to anything as cancer lightly. Cancer isn't another word for "cringy" or "bad"; it's something so horrible that it takes and destroys lives indiscriminately and without mercy. I hesitate to call influencer culture a cancer, but in this case the influencers may literally be giving people cancer with their carelessness and stupidity.
You know the tourism is bad when the illegal trespassers have to undo damages
I honestly think the Ukrainian government should close Pripyat for mass tourism and only allow entrance to very specific people or groups after a careful background screening. An area like Pripyat and the Chernobyl power plant should not be desecrated for the sake of likes. These are places where people died, they deserve to be treated with the utmost respect.
They won't thank to the money tourism give them
@@arran4285 the thing is they still could but make it far more regulated which means they can also charge more for it. set up fines for tresspassing and all that junk. they can make plenty of money still
Well not that the Ukrainian government can do anything now. The Russians captured it last year and are doing god knows what in there
The Ukrainian govt care about something much more valuable than "likes"... tourism money 😉
@@MrJcTTK But to do that mean money will be used
It boggles my mind that people hear about "irradiated wasteland Chernobyl", buy plane tickets, charter a tour guide, finally reach a site that is Very heavily controlled and Very clearly a disaster site... and grab something to take home. I cannot comprehend how you get that far and forget the entire reason it's a tourist site in the first place.
The fact that so many people can disconnect themselves so entirely from the reality of a disaster or a genocide or any other massively destructive thing is really screwed up. The lack or sympathy, empathy, or common sense is what always drags humanity down to its lowest points
Stalkers going in illegally and fixing things up makes me want to go help them so bad.
I've been to Chernobyl. The other members of my tour group all behaved themselves but holy smokes some of the other tourists were almost feral.
That’s wild. As if the show didn’t depict how extremely dangerous this area came to be. The fact people (which we can establish that the majority were fans of the show) come here and act as they did is
A lot of the influencers may not have even seen the show. Their followers have, so they'll do anything for that content to gain even more views.
a lot of the influencers probably didn't watch the show, but instead did what influencers do and did stuff at Chernobyl because of the attention that Chernobyl was getting.
The same people are doing this in Auschwitz like “hey followers in this chamber people died, let’s take a duck face photo”. Honestly disgusting these people should deserve the Darwin Award. 🇨🇭🇩🇪
You are a good person for spreading awareness Dankeschön.
The narcissism, self centeredness and ignorance of this generation is mind boggling.
@@disposabull ye
They just don’t care have fun be happy 😊😅😂🎉
@@disposabull They just don’t care have fun be happy 😊😅😂🎉
@@disposabull "of this generation"
Can you specify which one? Or rather I'm interested to hear how the rest of the crap that was 20th century was great in your opinion. Surely it's not just an entitlement talking, right?😅