Risks that would make a good climax scene in a movie carry far more weight with people than slow-burn harms that kill many more, which is why nuclear reactors frighten us and coal plants do not.

A lot more people have died of air pollution than nuclear reactors, for example. But most people worry more about living next to a nuclear reactor than a coal plant. But something about the way we’re wired is that although there’s many different kinds of risks we have to confront, the ones that make a good climax scene of a movie carry much more weight with us than the ones that are very bad over a long period of time but on a slow burn.