From Bellona: Alexei Yablokov, the towering grandfather of Russian ecology who worked with Bellona to unmask Cold War nuclear dumping practices in the Arctic, has died in Moscow after a long illness. He was 83.
As a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he was also the lead author of the seminal 2009 book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.”
The book presented the conclusion that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was responsible for 985,000 premature deaths – the boldest mortality tally to date – by analyzing 6,000 source materials on the accident. (The 985,000 premature death figure only covered the time period from 1986 to 2004, so even more premature deaths from exposure to hazardous ionizing radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe would have happened from 2005 to the present.)
Yablokov commanded a broad environmental and political mandate in Russia, and published over 500 papers on biology, ecology, natural conservation and numerous textbooks on each of these subjects. He founded Russia’s branch of Greenpeace and was the leader of the Green Russia faction of the Yabloko opposition party.
Read the full Bellona tribute.
Listen to Nuclear Hotseat's tribute, including a brief interview with Alexey.