AFTER THE APOCALYPSE

As you may recall, in 1986 in northern Eukrain the chernobyl nuclear power plant blew up with devastating effect lighting the sky a brilliant purple and laying waste to 1669 square miles, including the town of Pripyat. This area is now know as the exclusive zone, Just 25 years later strange things have happened. Flora and fauna have flourished. In only 25 years the forest has reclaimed the area. Enormous feral pigs, dogs, wolves, lynx, foxes, badgers, red and roe deer, elk, frogs and fish abound. It is like the garden of Edan, a paradise of wild life. But------ The birds are showing the first signs of the unstable DNA taking place, showing freakishly high levels of albinism. Some trees have taken on unusual forms. We may soon see evolution taking place at an unprecedented rate. This is probably what the world looked like before mankind altered the landscape and how it might look again when humans are gone. This is an abridged version ( mine ) of a much longer article by Henery Shuckman that first appeared in Outside Magazine and reprinted in The Week magazine of April 1, 2011.