- The future is uncertain, and risk assessments are our way of
navigating uncertainty. They can contribute to decision making
about sustainability, especially by making comparisons across
major domains of risk, like climate change and terrorism. -
Comparing one risk to another requires examining various driving
factors, the ways the risk unfolds over time, and how it impacts
affected groups. - Traditional risk models are limited in their
assessment of sustainability problems. Complex threats such as
climate change and terrorism require a rethinking of the
conventional risk assessment approach. - Decisions about how to
allocate resources to mitigate various risks will require both
scientific understanding and a weighing of public values. Albert
Einstein, to his death, could never accept the probabilistic
underpinnings and uncertainties of quantum mechanics. In a
letter to Max Born in 1926 he wrote, “I am convinced that God
does not play dice with the universe.” In the following year, at
a physics conference, N