ABSTRACT
Risks tend to loom large in contemporary industrialized societies (but are not restricted to them). In part this is because the industrial revolution and the later chemical revolution introduced risks that were previously unknown or much less extensive. In part we may now be more attentive to risks than we might have been before the environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, risks catch our attention because the mere identification of something as a risk alerts us to potential adverse effects to ourselves, others or the environment.
