“One of the most important events of the XXth century was the nuclear catastrophe in Chernobyl.”
Of course, the student has a Polish last name, which makes the entire thing less surprising. But still.
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Clarissa's Blog 
To the people of Ukraine, certainly. But how was it to the world at large?
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If the planet perishes, the most probable reason is that technology will escape from our control. Chernobyl brought that home to everybody. It’s the beginning of the era of ecological catastrophes that will affect us all if we don’t change our course of actions.
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I’d say it had a pretty massive impact, politically and societally in the UK.
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It doesn’t really count as one of the defining events of the XXth century for the entire world, though.
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Oh no, of course not. But these are undergrad students, I assume? I can understand how something that did change their ‘world’ insular as it might be, could be reasonably seen from their perspective to have affected the entire world. It’s the sort of naivete that I’d expect from a first year undergrad. and compared to the Diana and Hitler comments I thought it was relatively hopeful.
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It may well be an important event that shapes energy policies for centuries to come. We must stop using fossil fuels, unless we want a future in which Antarctica is the only habitable continent. Nuclear power was one possible way to prevent this. After this event and the more recent disaster in Japan, it seems likely that we must go to wind and solar power alone in the long run. This is feasible, despite what the fossil fuel people say, but it will not be easy.
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Defining event, well Hiroshima would trump Chernobyl. But important, yes Chernobyl is very important and an infinitely better answer than the death of Lady Di.
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One student listed Hiroshima, which I’m taking as a good sign.
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