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Comment by leftyted | Hacker News Reader

Is this region comparatively unspoilt because of the Chernobyl disaster? If so, that's a strange kind of irony.

It's swamps and forests sitting between 3 countries that went 3 different geopolitic ways (Belarus joined Russia, Poland joined EU and Ukraine tried to alance between the two). If you want to move goods from Ukraine to Poland - going through Belarus forces you to pay entry tariffs to CIS (Russia economic union) AND entry tariffs to EU. And dealing with lots of paperwork. Makes zero sense so all trade goes directly Poland->Ukraine through land south from there.

There's no industry, almost no trade, population is sparse, and even farming isn't very profitable there. And for some weird reason it's not even that well known by tourists.

Region influenced by Chernobyl is just a small part and it wasn't the root cause anyway.

No, it's because it is mostly swamps. Totally unsuitable for agriculture.

Agriculture is not the only thing humans do or settle for. Swamps are historically heavily inhabited by and sometimes even purposefully extended by humans specifically due to endemic biodiversity and ease of hunting and gathering. Also, sometimes because they offer fertile soils or refuge from other humans, and the waterways a strong source of orientation, food, and an artery for transport, trade and taxation. Examples off the top of my head: Bangladesh, Holland, Venice, Hanoi, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Angkor, Amazon, Sepik River of PNG...

Virtually all your examples are seaside marshes, not low-lying inland swamps. But your example of Angkor is a good example of a low-lying inland swampy area and, while for a period of history it was a productive, heavily populated area it then experienced a population crash which has extended through to the present day.

I’d add Tenochtitlan which is Mexico now. It was a swamp surrounded by mountains 500 years ago. Densely populated.

So let's look purely at Hanoi, Hangzhou and Angkor as the subset that matches your requested scope. I still think it's fair to point out that they are all enormously successful areas.

Not entirely true, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreew%C3%A4lder_Gurken from the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreewald for example. Similar landscapes. I'd guess swampy isn't that bad if you channel it a little, to have some more dry islands.

edit: Cranberries!

The Chernobyl exclusion zone has greater biodiversity than it did before the disaster. Humans are worse for the environment than concentrated radioactive fallout.

If you are a billionaire and you want to make a wildlife preserve with your billions, just buy some dirty bombs.

More or less the theme behind Hugh Howey's 'Silo' series.

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