Perhaps
you've noticed: we live in a risky world. Every day we are
told about some new danger, a new disease, and new environmental
hazard. The fact is that living in our high tech society means
that we have increased the environmental risks we face. Many
of these risks are not a matter of personal choice. Take air
pollution for example. Our kids will encounter this risk if
we live in a polluted city, whether we drive or not. Risks
are calculated as the probability of a negative outcome from
a specific activity measured across wide populations and over
considerable time. The more we know about risks, the better
we think we can control or avoid them. We rely on medical
science to assess these risks and the media to keep us informed.
And recently, the newspapers have been telling us that too
much media entertainment makes children overweight, violent
and poor readers.
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