So how we protect the environment
Answers
That humans came out of the trees in the first place suggests we happily embrace risks. That we have evolved a society that does its best to combat and limit them speaks for itself: most sciencetoday is, to some degree, propelled by our wish to live longer, safer, morepredictable lives. And the media hype, often unscientific and emotive, is an important way a democracy calibrates one risk against another and prioritises its actions to limit them.
In the past forty years the environmental debate has been driven, with explosive energy and no little acrimony, by the twin poles of human nature: risk acceptance and risk aversion. Both are key to progress. Some argue that human ingenuity, technology and adaptiveness can rise to meet any threat. Others prefer to know more about the risk before consenting to wear it.