Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Sure, you’re a perfectly sane and rational person—until it’s time to board a plane or go down to your basement late at night. You feel your heart race, and you repeat the mantra: I’m safer on this plane than I am in my car. I’ve been in this basement a million times. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

We identified 10 of our worst fears and found Carls who can put those fears to rest. Or can they?

Will a bear attack me if I go hiking in Yosemite?

Karen Noyce ’75 tracked, tranquilized, and fitted bears with radio collars as one of the first researchers with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ bear project. She retired from the DNR in December after 33 years.

When I’m outdoors, I’m much more concerned about the weather than I am with local wildlife. The main thing is to be aware of your surroundings. If you’re in Montana and you decide to go running through the tall grass, well, you might run into a rattlesnake. And no one wants that.

Animals are incredibly intelligent—and, yes, unpredictable. Right from birth, animals behave differently from one another. Some are more cautious, others are more active or aggressive. Some are more curious. When you observe mammals, as I have, you notice their enormous personality differences.

The DNR has been very successful in educating people how to enjoy the outdoors without being afraid of or disturbing most wildlife species. But you still see some people who don’t respect their surroundings. You may run into animals that are habituated to people, and those animals might take liberties that most won’t—maybe they’ll grab your pack or chase you or come into your campsite. At Yosemite National Park, bears have been known to pop windows out of cars or rip through the backseat to get to a cooler in the trunk. They can be extremely persistent and they’re not afraid of people. But, in general, most animals are going to hear you and get out of your way before you ever see them—especially if you stick to popular trails or stay in a group.

Am I going to get shot at the mall?

An assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University in St. Paul, Sarah Greenman ’02 specializes in issues of violence, victimization, and deterrence.

Mass unexpected violence is very rare, but however infrequently it occurs—whether in malls, or schools, or wherever—it gets a lot of attention and that makes us more likely to worry.

It varies by year, but roughly 38 to 50 percent of Americans think they will be a victim of some sort of crime. Around 20 percent fear murder, which is lower than the percentage of people who worry about getting mugged, or having their car or identity stolen. We have a tendency to blame crime victims—they shouldn’t have been in that neighborhood, they were drunk, they were in a gang. We identify the factors that make the victims different from us, because we rationalize that if we don’t live in that neighborhood or we’re not in a gang, then we won’t be a victim.

Given that random mass violence is still rare in the United States, I don’t think it’s necessary for anyone to change his or her lifestyle. From a prevention standpoint, you can take steps to ensure that your phone won’t be stolen while you wait at the bus stop or ride the subway. That’s an easier change to make than, for example, never going to a mall again because you fear something bad is going to happen there.

Is technology making me dumb?

Psychology professor Daniel Simons ’91 specializes in cognitive studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He cowrote the book The Invisible Gorilla and has published articles in numerous scientific journals, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The idea that technology is fundamentally changing our brains for the worse goes back centuries. In the 15th century, people were afraid that the printing press would weaken our thinking. Now, they worry about the impact of Twitter or cell phones or texting. I remember a big dustup when I was in college over the fear that listening to music over headphones would damage our minds. Wearing headphones might mean that you’re observing less of the world around you, but it’s not fundamentally changing how we think or how our brains work.

The fear that technology changes our cognitive capacities is overblown. But that’s not to say that technology can’t interfere with our daily lives. For example, we know that talking on the phone while we’re driving is a bad idea—and that’s a legitimate thing to be afraid of.

As a culture, we interact in different ways now. I would bet that most of us can’t write letters as well as our grandparents did, but not because we lack the cognitive ability to do so—it’s just not a practiced skill. We use different forms of communication, and we’re no worse or better off as a culture. You get good at the things you practice, and those skills, whatever they are, tap into the brain mechanisms you have available.

The fear that using Google will somehow make you incapable of learning information in another manner isn’t valid. You may find that you’re less skilled at remembering stuff, but it’s because you no longer need to remember it. It doesn’t mean you no longer have the capacity to learn something if you practice.

Am I going to die from a viral outbreak?

Maroya Walters ’03 is an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service.

The CDC and state and local health departments are constantly investigating outbreaks of disease in the United States. But not all of them pose the same risk to humans—it depends on the severity of the illness and how it’s transmitted.

There was a lot of panic about Ebola because its death rate is so high, but when the infection peaked in Africa last fall, travelers coming into the United States from infected countries were screened at customs and then monitored for weeks afterward to make sure they didn’t develop symptoms. Even though Ebola is often deadly, it is only spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, so widespread transmission of the disease in the United States is unlikely.

Measles isn’t deadly as often as Ebola is, but it’s highly contagious and can have long-lasting health effects. When most of the population was vaccinated, outbreaks were uncommon because few people were susceptible. Today, however, fewer people are getting vaccinated, so measles outbreaks have increased.

Instead of worrying about an Ebola outbreak in the United States, focus on the steps you can take against the illnesses that are most likely to affect you: talk to your physician about your overall health and vaccinate yourself and your children, whether it’s routine childhood shots or an annual flu shot, to keep immunity levels in the population high.

Can someone spy on me through my computer’s camera?

Nick Vigier ’01 is a security engineer at Palantir Technologies in New York City. He has worked on information security—from policy to education to site architecture—for large and small companies.

It’s not outside the realm of possibility that someone is watching you. There’s common malware—you click on a link and, yes, it gives people access to your camera. It’s not terribly likely, though.

Just be aware. Have you seen anything suspicious on your machine? On Macs, you’ll see a little green light next to the camera. If the light is on when you don’t have any applications running, then you might want to start asking questions. That’s the key to all of this. Ask questions. What extra measures should I take so that people can’t take advantage of my information? Should I really click on this random link? Diversify your passwords or add PIN authentication as an extra security step. If you make security the lowest priority, it creates the least amount of friction. That comes with a cost. Users need to introduce that friction themselves.

When it comes to security, a lot of people operate on the pendulum mode. On one end of the spectrum, we don’t want to be inconvenienced. So we’ll use an obvious password—like 123456 or password—and most us will use that same password for multiple sites. Inevitably, we will do something careless. We’ll click on a link that doesn’t make any sense and set ourselves up for an attack. Then we get our identity stolen or someone spams us, and we go all the way in the other direction. It’s up to you where you fall on the spectrum.

Will my house burn down if I forget to turn off the coffeemaker?

Daniel Casper ’89 is a former English teacher who joined the Minneapolis Fire Department in his mid-30s. He is now a fire captain.

Looking at the odds, you’re unlikely to experience a major fire in your house. But my experience is skewed because I see every case where, because of a faulty appliance or a fan that shorted out, those odds don’t matter.

I still haven’t convinced my stepfather that he shouldn’t leave the dryer on when he leaves the house. I’ve seen a lot of dryer fires—overloaded dryers, too much lint in the trap, something with the exhaust hose. I don’t ever leave my house with the dryer running.

In general, though, a faulty appliance or a shorting wire doesn’t turn into something significant unless it percolates for hours. If you were home and something electrical happened, you would smell that something was amiss well before it turned dangerous. It typically only goes from nothing to catastrophic if you aren’t home—or if you’re asleep. That’s why you need working smoke alarms.

If you’re going to be away for an extended period, you should unplug appliances. I even recommend turning the water off when you leave for vacation. Granted, I have a heightened fear because I see it often, but a certain amount of housekeeping failure goes hand in hand with catastrophe—and you don’t want to be looking at that from the wrong end.

Will an asteroid obliterate life on Earth?

Cindy Blaha is a professor of physics and astronomy and the Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor of the Liberal Arts at Carleton.

According to a risk analysis by the National Research Council, an asteroid large enough to cause a global catastrophe (5 kilometers in diameter) is likely to hit Earth once every 30 million years or so. One large enough to cause mass extinction (10 kilometers in diameter) comes an average of once every 100 million years. We think the last one, Chicxulub, 65 million years ago, was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Today, if something big were coming, we would know before it got here, but depending on its orbit and how fast it’s moving, we might not have enough time to do anything about it. So we’ve got several NEO (near-Earth object) surveys currently looking for objects that cross Earth’s orbit. In fact, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project, spearheaded by Sydney Wolff ’62, will be operational soon in Chile. The telescope will scan the entire night sky every three days and capture digital photos that will be made available to the public online.

Astronomers are working to identify objects that cross Earth’s orbit before any impact happens, and scientists are discussing possible strategies for dealing with a potential collision if one were identified. We hope by the time a big asteroid comes our way, we’ll have a survival plan.

Is Big Brother real?

Beth Givens ’72 is director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Americans are subject to mass surveillance today, and have been for some time. Most notably, Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the National Security Agency has tapped Internet servers and phone metadata records on all Americans. However, our concerns should extend beyond the government. We’re in the era of Big Data, and that poses significant privacy risks. Data brokers are aggressively aggregating personal information about our medical conditions, financial information, debt potential, job security, and fraud propensity. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Companies use secret algorithms that slice and dice massive amounts of data—often purchased from these data brokers—to make decisions that affect us directly. What rate will I get when I refinance or purchase a house? Can I buy a life insurance policy with good terms at a decent price? Will I be denied a promotion if my employer learns I have a chronic medical condition?

Worse, the data may not be accurate. Thousands of people have contacted the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse with stories of financial loss, employment discrimination, even incarceration because of database inaccuracies. Our organization advocates for people’s right to access their own data and correct errors, as well as for the option to limit data collection altogether. This has proven to be a challenging endeavor in the absence of robust legislative and regulatory oversight.

Decision-making based on secret algorithms is dangerous and warrants our fear and opposition. Big Data must be regulated by such agencies as the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure that their practices are fair to consumers. Just as we can access our credit reports at no charge, we should be told the factors that go into the various scores that affect our lives. We have to stay informed and demand transparency.

At the same time, government surveillance practices must be subject to checks and balances. The passage in June of the USA Freedom Act is a significant step in the right direction, but not the comprehensive reform many civil liberties advocates seek.

People react differently to government and commercial privacy encroachment. Some people say, “I’m not worried because I have nothing to hide.” Other people believe, “There’s nothing I can do about it, so why worry?” Neither sentiment is effective. My advice is to be aware, be assertive, and, above all, be an advocate for your privacy.

Can I let my kids walk to school?

Katie Campbell ’87 is a school social worker in Cumberland Center, Maine.

Walking or riding a bike to school is a terrific way to start and end the day. Of course we don’t want to put our children in dangerous situations, so you have to plan ahead to ensure that your kids can walk or ride to school safely:

• Practice walking or biking to school together first. How long does it take? Is your child tired afterward, or refreshed and ready for the day?
• Remind your kids of appropriate safety guidelines (crossing the street, interacting with other people, etc.).
• Connect your children with other kids to walk or ride with.
• If there are dangerous or tricky intersections near your school, check to see if there are crossing guards. If not, contact your parent-teacher organization and the local police department to arrange for volunteer crossing guards.
• Talk to your children to find out how they feel about walking to school.

Depending on the child, the neighborhood, and the distance of the walk, there will be some 7-year-olds who are ready and some 10-year-olds who aren’t. If you think your children can handle it, review your expectations, remind them that they have the skills they need to do this, and let them go.

If you are unsure about any aspect of your decision to let your kids walk or ride bikes to school, call your school social worker or counselor, or a public safety official, to discuss it. If your plan is outside the common trend in your community, be prepared to discuss why you feel it is the right choice for your child. You might get some pushback, but you also will empower your child and possibly start an important community conversation. We give our children a significant and lifelong gift if we teach them how to tackle hard and scary things at age-appropriate levels.

Is it too late to reverse the effects of global warming?

Pete Erickson ’98 is a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute. Geoff Ruth ’97 is academic dean at the Urban School of San Francisco and teaches a course on climate change through the Bay Area BlendEd Consortium.

Ruth: There’s increasing scientific evidence that we are close to some tipping points in natural systems. Two scientific papers [from the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany and University of California–Irvine in partnership with NASA] that were released last year suggest we have passed thresholds in melting some parts of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets. While it will take hundreds of years to fully melt those sheets, there’s growing evidence that we’re committing to several meters of long-term sea level rise.

Erickson: We have probably committed harm to the atmosphere that would be very difficult to undo. But I worry about the fatalistic belief that the harm is binary—either we’ve entirely ruined the climate or we haven’t. This attitude is counterproductive and dangerous. Yes, we’ve already set in motion enough global warming to lead to very real consequences, including (through increasingly extreme weather) for human lives. But the difference between what we’ve already locked in and the further damage we could do if we continue to base our economy on fossil fuels is huge: billions of lives and livelihoods hang in the balance. As long as future generations demand a habitable planet, there is no “game over.”

Ruth: When I teach, I inveigh against using language like “humans are going to destroy the planet through climate change.” Life has existed on Earth for three and a half billion years, and nothing humans do will completely kill off all life here. The planet will not be destroyed, but it may be changed in ways that make it a much less pleasant and habitable place for humans and many other types of organisms. Even if we don’t completely destroy the planet, the risks of damaging it are very real.

Erickson: There’s not much we can do to repair damage already done, except to support financial relief to areas and people hit hardest by the changing climate. In terms of limiting future damage, the most important thing we can do is support strong federal climate policy (for example, an ambitious limit on national emissions). Beyond that, we can change our own lifestyles. Learn more from the Union of Concerned Scientists at coolersmarter.org.

Illustrations by Steven Tabbutt