The volcanic ash cloud is a classic case study [in risk management]. Were the government to allow flights to go ahead when the risks were equal to those of road travel, it is almost certain that, over the course of the year, hundreds of people would die in resulting air accidents, since around 2,500 die on the roads each year. This is politically unimaginable, not for good, rational reasons, but because people are much more risk averse when it comes to plane travel than they are to driving their own cars.
From a superb essay from Julian Baggini for the BBC on the tricky nature of government’s risk assesments.
