L’Aquila earthquake.
Can the USA charge Climatologists for misleading the nation in regards to the causes of climate change and thereby robbing citizens of their Liberty and wasting multi-Billions of dollars in assets?
Chosen Answer:
There’s a lot of misunderstanding, about that news from Italy; even most Italian newspapers are not reporting correctly the judge decision, while scientific source actually did: the judge actually AGREE that is not possible to forecast earthquakes!
If you read the full in-depth story, you’ll realize those seven scientist, all members of official commissions, are charged for their evaluation of risk (an official one, in city hall a couple of weeks before the earthquake) about the earthquake swarm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_swarm that were taking place during those weeks (prior to the big one) was “approximate, too generalized, ineffective”; they gave “sketchy, inaccurate and contradictory” informations about nature, cause and dangerousness about future possible development of the event under examination. At the time, prior to the event, the mayor and members of local government DID NOT put their sign on that document, for that reason.
What actually happened is they were, according to the commission who charged them, too much reassuring about the situation stating there was no risk; as a consequence of their advice (just an example), many people changed their behavior and did not left their houses when the they heard the earth tremor, *like they were used to do during previous weeks*!
It’s true an earthquake cannot be forecast, but just for that reason it’s also true you can’t say “for sure” that no earthquake is up to come!
Many citizens changed their behavior because ill-advised, obviously including many people who actually survived and can testify about.
I tried to sum up a complex issue, I’m just trying to emphasize that this affair is more subtle and less preposterous as too many superficial sources actually reported it.
by: Pinguino
on: 31st May 11