Seismologists Tried For Manslaughter For Not Predicting Earthquake 154
mcgrew writes "From LiveScience: 'Earthquake prediction can be a grave, and faulty science, and in the case of Italian seismologists who are being tried for the manslaughter of the people who died in the 2009 L'Aquila quake, it can have legal consequences.' A group of seven, including six seismologists and a government official, reportedly didn't alert the public ahead of time of the risk of the L'Aquila earthquake, which occurred on April 6 of that year, killing around 300 people, according to the US Geological Survey."
Who's next, meteorologists? Stock brokers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Shenanigans!! Double shenanigans!
This is why I hate gambling!
What is the penalty if they had erred on the side of caution and had been wrong? Loss of job? Loss of reputation?
It would have cost millions to plan, evacuate, etc...
Holding people liable for an act of nature is a dangerous precedent.
Yikes!
Re:And yet, false predictions would also be bad. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or we could skip all of your crappy options and picked the one that a proper scientist would say in a case where they don't know for sure either way: "we don't know" but told people to be alert in case something did happen.
Re:More Details (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually the earthquake was predicted and the warnings were ignored. Italy 'Dismissed Expert's Quake Warning [sky.com] Sky News / 9:06pm UK, Monday April 06, 2009 / Nick Pisa in Rome :