There is adventure tourism (mountain biking, etc.), there is experience tourism (cooking in Florence, etc.) and now there is environmental disaster tourism.

The brilliant marketing folks at the Chernobyl nuclear plant have come up with a great gimmick: walk the ruins of one of the history's worst environmental catastrophes! You go, we show, you'll glow! or something like that. Maybe it sounds better in Russian.

Anyhoodle, on a serious note, I have to say it's fascinating that this "dark symbol of Soviet rule" as the article puts it, has become a tourist destination. But you have to admit that the idea has an odd, kind of sick allure. I mean Auschwitz is a tourist destination. I've actually been there and it had great impact on me. So perhaps it''s not such a bad idea. What's next, though? Perhaps, tram rides through Falluja??

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