Risk: Reason and Reality

Gun Control Keeps Getting Shot Down. Why Does a Tiny Minority Always Win? - Most Americans want reasonable gun safety laws, and in a democracy, the majority is supposed to win. Why isn't it working that way with gun control? My Take – The author dances around the May Pole for a while, but he clearly misses the point. 

Does Living Near a Nuclear Plant Increase Cancer Risk? The NRC Was Right to Cancel a Study to Find Out. - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has dropped a study on whether living near a nuclear plant increases the risk of cancer. Criticism of this decision is predictable, but unwarranted. The study would only have...

Can People With Different Views Find Ways to Cooperate? Here's One Hopeful Experience. - Twenty-one strangers with different values and views, thrown together on a Grand Canyon rafting trip, managed to set aside those differences and build community.

Murdered: Cecil the Lion, Blaze the Yellowstone Grizzly - The shooting of two charismatic animals stirred international outrage. But a more important event to the developing world concern with animal welfare was publication of Carl Safina's Beyond Words, What Animals...

Why Is Nagasaki Thriving While Chernobyl Remains Abandoned? - "30 years after, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are bustling cities. 30 years after Chernobyl, abandoned city. What's the difference?"

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: What Survivors Taught Us About the Danger of Excessive Fear of Radiation - Nuclear weapons do horrific widespread damage. Nuclear radiation, even at high doses, does not. But fear of radiation does. We have the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to thank for these...

The EPA Plan to Cut Power Plant Emissions Puts Climate Change Debate Behind Us - There are fair quarrels with the details of the Obama Administration plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. But beyond the details, the fact that such a major step is being taken in the first...

Cellphones and Radiation: Berkeley's Silly, and Harmful, Pandering to Fear - A decision requiring cellphone retailers to warn customers of possible radiation risk typifies the emotion-based way that democracy can supersede intelligent government risk policy-making.

'The New Yorker' Earthquake Warning. Another Alarm About 'The Big One' That Doesn't Explain Why We Aren't Alarmed. - A terrific story about the physical threat of a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest fails to explain why people don't seem alarmed. That lack of alarm puts the public at risk as much as the shaking Earth...