Behaviour and significance of radioactive substances released into agricultural, forestry and fisheries; Radioation in the environment; Radioecology, behaviour, significance, models; Chernobyl and other accidents; Some international situation in Europe after Chernobyl; Some international implications; Soil and crop contamination by rarioactive fallout; Agricultural and forestry soils as a vital global resource; Soil in the nutrient cycle; Sources and nature of radioactive contamination; Biological significance of contaminated soils; Behaviour in soils and movement into foodwebs; Detection and measurement; Countermeasures, reclamation and use of contaminated soils; Concluding comments; some questions and needs.

A distillation of the report by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), an international effort by over 200 scientisits. Written for a lay audience, it presents the thrust of the original arguments of the two-volume study without the scientific minutiae. Explores the climatic and atmospheric changes induced, radiation and fallout, and the putative biological consequences.