What's Important?

Maybe look at some things to help prioritise and put things in context 

1. What is the impact on you personally?

2. What control (if any) do you have?

3. What mitigating action can you take?

So wildfire in LA:

1. unless you have family or property in LA they have no personal impact on your day to day life 

2. You have no control over this event 

3. Beyond donating to charities to support victims (if you can afford it) there is no mitigating action you can take.

3 x "no" = very low priority

Tidal waves near where you live

1. Potential for personal impact, damage to possessions, damage to neighbours, amenities and potential injury or loss of life (depending how likely the wave is to reach you or your immediate vicinity).

2. You can't control the wave

3. You can mitigate damage by moving to higher ground, or taking possessions upstairs or putting sandbags around your property. 

2 x yes, 1 no = higher priority

I try to look at things like this and do find it helpful. Doesn't stop me worrying about the "3x no" things, but gives them some context. 

Maybe look at some things to help prioritise and put things in context 

1. What is the impact on you personally?

2. What control (if any) do you have?

3. What mitigating action can you take?

So wildfire in LA:

1. unless you have family or property in LA they have no personal impact on your day to day life 

2. You have no control over this event 

3. Beyond donating to charities to support victims (if you can afford it) there is no mitigating action you can take.

3 x "no" = very low priority

Tidal waves near where you live

1. Potential for personal impact, damage to possessions, damage to neighbours, amenities and potential injury or loss of life (depending how likely the wave is to reach you or your immediate vicinity).

2. You can't control the wave

3. You can mitigate damage by moving to higher ground, or taking possessions upstairs or putting sandbags around your property. 

2 x yes, 1 no = higher priority

I try to look at things like this and do find it helpful. Doesn't stop me worrying about the "3x no" things, but gives them some context. 

excellent way to break this down.

It can also help to try to estimate the risk of the event happening, so look at the case of a tidal wave.

Have there been any tidal waves in history in your area that have been more than a problem for some sea front houses?

Chances are that is a no - there may be some storm generated waves that are a bigger issue but again these will most likely only affect seafront houses so if you live in a basement flat on the sea front in an area with regular tidal surges and storm exposure then I would consider moving, otherwise history will establish there is no significant effect.

Ah, but there could be a tidal wave like in some movies I hear you say. Well that is a possibility - a massively insignificant one admittedly as history will show but it is in the same league as worryng about getting hit by one of Elon Musks Teslas falling out of orbit. Always a possibility but when you start to calculate the odds you soon realise how unlikely it is.

Where you can't intuitively work out if it is a problem then learn to do the math for probability and do a little reseasrch on the issue to help you put it in context.

Also work out the risk of a burning double decker bus crashing into your house and exploding as a baseline for your risk calculation. Busses probably drive by, they can catch fire and may hit just your house just as it explodes so working out the odds of this happening are going to show just how low the risks are.

It may also make you worry the exploding bus thing if you have trouble understanding how the odds work though, so use with care.