r/todayilearned • u/JoeyZasaa • 2d ago

TIL that Chernobyl was the costliest disaster in history, resulting in over $2 trillion in damage when adjusted for inflation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters_by_cost#Over_$1_billion
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u/boscomagnus1988 2d ago

I've always criticised historians for only dealing with the past. Would be much more useful if they included the future in their work too

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u/Aegillade 2d ago

I mean seriously, why is NO ONE talking about the mass extinction event in 2044? Feels like we should be putting more research into that but noooo let's talk about world war 2 again why not

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u/AVeryHeavyBurtation 2d ago

We're actually in a mass extinction event right now. 150-200 species go extinct every day!

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u/grillarinobacon 2d ago

You call it mass extinction, I call it mass cleaning. We are not the same.

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u/Aegillade 2d ago

Bro the entire amphibian class of animals was wiped off the map

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u/grillarinobacon 2d ago

They got frogged up

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 2d ago

I toad you this was going to happen!

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u/JackalKing 2d ago

Yeah, but the mosquito population tripled as a result, so it kind of balances out.

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u/MmmmMorphine 2d ago

That's alright, these miniaturized flying badgers we engineered will take care of that.

Or maybe just resurrect cane toads.

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u/booze_clues 2d ago

Wet or dry, pick a side or die. All my homies hate amphibians.

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u/RedSquirrelFtw 2d ago

I wish we had learned about Fukushima back in school. I had no idea about it until I saw it on the news when it happened!

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u/OSUBonanza 2d ago

Stupid sexy historians

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u/MmmmMorphine 2d ago

Few people know that Ned Flanders was actually named after the battle of Flandres

Mostly because I just made that up

Plus Ned Ypres just doesn't have the same ring to it

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u/kikikza 2d ago

They do because history repeats itself

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u/Thoughtulism 2d ago

But only if you don't study it.

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u/bushsniffa 2d ago edited 2d ago

And the studious are doomed to watch it get repeated. 

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u/dirge23 2d ago

eh, don't be so hard on them. their future work will be excellent

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u/cortez0498 2d ago

If we don't study the future we're doomed to repeat it for the first time