Seismologists found guilty of manslaughter

[ScienceRocks]

Seismologists found guilty of manslaughter
18:45 22 October 2012 by Michael Marshall
Seismologists found guilty of manslaughter - environment - 22 October 2012 - New Scientist

Six seismologists, and a civil protection official, have been sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.

They have been convicted of falsely reassuring the residents of the town of L'Aquila that a major earthquake was not going to happen. But the area was struck by a magnitude-6.3 earthquake on 6 April 2009. More than 300 people were killed and thousands were left homeless.

In the light of the verdict, New Scientist takes a look at what happened, and the science of earthquake prediction.


Can we predict earthquakes?
In short, no. Despite decades of research, we do not have a reliable way of predicting when and where an earthquake is going to happen with any accuracy.

That's not to say we don't have any information. Clearly, places like the Pacific Rim are more prone to earthquakes than, say, western Europe. High-risk regions tend to be on the boundaries of continental plates, or near cracks in the plates, known as fault lines.

Seismologists can track the frequency and size of earthquakes in different parts of the world and use the data to make rough statistical forecasts of the likelihood of future quakes (Geophysical Journal International, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2012.05521.x). This allows regions that are likely to experience a big quake in the next few decades to prepare generally – for instance by strengthening buildings.

But the statistical forecasts are vague, and can span decades, says Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, UK. A truly useful prediction would be something like: "Next week, there will be an earthquake in Geneva of a magnitude greater than 6.5." That would allow for planned evacuations and other emergency measures. At the moment, nobody can make such precise, timely predictions.

We can't predict a fucking earthquake so why throw these men in prison? WTF.

 

[IanC]

free the seismologists, toss the climate modelers in jail instead.

 

[editec]

Six seismologists, and a civil protection official, have been sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.

They have been convicted of falsely reassuring the residents of the town of L'Aquila that a major earthquake was not going to happen. But the area was struck by a magnitude-6.3 earthquake on 6 April 2009. More than 300 people were killed and thousands were left homeless.

That's rather harsh.

Firing them might make sense but prison?!

Looks to me like Italy is about to experience a mass migration of seismologists.

 

[Old Rocks]

free the seismologists, toss the climate modelers in jail instead.

Really? And all the people that work on the information that the satellites provide us also?

 

[westwall]

Six seismologists, and a civil protection official, have been sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.

They have been convicted of falsely reassuring the residents of the town of L'Aquila that a major earthquake was not going to happen. But the area was struck by a magnitude-6.3 earthquake on 6 April 2009. More than 300 people were killed and thousands were left homeless.

That's rather harsh.

Firing them might make sense but prison?!

Looks to me like Italy is about to experience a mass migration of seismologists.

Fire them for what? Not being able to predict what is so far unpredictable? Italy is so fucked up. If a person is killed in a auto race they charge everyone with manslaughter. It's ridiculous. As is the country.

 

[westwall]

free the seismologists, toss the climate modelers in jail instead.

Really? And all the people that work on the information that the satellites provide us also?

I would toss only those who are actively engaged in promulgating bad info and furthering the fraud. Honest researchers who are just awful at what they do would get a free pass.
But Hansen, Mann, Trenberth, Jones and the other big wigs in the climate mafia? Oh yeah, prison for all of them.

They are parasites on society and commiting a true crime against humanity.

 

[mamooth]

Italian law also gives very harsh sentences for false accusations, and even an offhand comment to the media can qualify. For example, Amanda Knox was cleared of murder, but sentenced to 3 years for "calunnia", because during her days of grueling interrogation, she had broken down and just named some guy in order to get the interrogation to stop.

So, as westwall demostrates, all denialists need to avoid Italy, since they could face immediate imprisonment there. After all, fraudulent accusations against honest climate scientists are one of the perverted foundations of denialism, a way that denialist cultists identify with each other and bond with each other.

 

[westwall]

Italian law also gives very harsh sentences for false accusations, and even an offhand comment to the media can qualify. For example, Amanda Knox was cleared of murder, but sentenced to 3 years for "calunnia", because during her days of grueling interrogation, she had broken down and just named some guy in order to get the interrogation to stop.

So, as westwall demostrates, all denialists need to avoid Italy, since they could face immediate imprisonment there. After all, fraudulent accusations against honest climate scientists are one of the perverted foundations of denialism, a way that denialist cultists identify with each other and bond with each other.

We have family in Bergamo so we travel there frequently! Honest climate scientists...that's an oxymoron..just like military intelligence!

 

[flacaltenn]

Italians should probably be paying more attention to who they let drive cruise ships..
This is what society devolves to when the Govt sets an expectation of a "zero risk" society..

No -- I'm not joking.. The entire left-right debate is about helmets and knee pads so that every citizen no matter how incompetent comes in for a soft landing..

RISK --- should be eliminated at all costs. Even if you have to punish the odds makers..

 

[Old Rocks]

Italian law also gives very harsh sentences for false accusations, and even an offhand comment to the media can qualify. For example, Amanda Knox was cleared of murder, but sentenced to 3 years for "calunnia", because during her days of grueling interrogation, she had broken down and just named some guy in order to get the interrogation to stop.

So, as westwall demostrates, all denialists need to avoid Italy, since they could face immediate imprisonment there. After all, fraudulent accusations against honest climate scientists are one of the perverted foundations of denialism, a way that denialist cultists identify with each other and bond with each other.

We have family in Bergamo so we travel there frequently! Honest climate scientists...that's an oxymoron..just like military intelligence!

What is the differance between your condemnation of real scientists and that of the Italians jailing seismologists for inability to predict earthquakes? There is none. You are exactly the same as the Italians.

Hansen and the rest of the climate scientists predicted much of what we are seeing now concerning the melt in Greenland and in the Arctic Ice Cap. But they were far too conservative. Even the most 'alarmist' of them did not predict most of the Arctic Sea Ice gone in the summer by 2020.

You people started out 30 years ago with "there is no warming happening". You only ceased that lie, and you knew it to be that, when it became obvious to all that there is a rapid warming in progress. Then it became, "yes, it is warming, but mankind has nothing to do with it". In spite of the physics of GHGs.

I am willing to bet that if there were to be a major climatic event that proved to be catastrophic, such as another flood period on the Missouri and Mississippi, and one of the upper dams gives way, that you would be beating the drums for imprisonment of the climatologists because they did not specifically predict that event.

This bullshit of the demonization of working scientists because their conclusions do not agree with your politics is what I find so repungent in your posts.

Once again, AGU conferance coming up. Are you going to make a presentation there? If not, why not? Present some real science and people will listen. But they don't have much patience with crackpots. There will be real scientists making presentations there. How many will state that AGW does not exist?

 

[flacaltenn]

What do climatologists have to do with dams bursting? I thought you were just all up in my face about a drought?

But yeah.. If Cap and Trade and Kyoto went forward and NOTHING got resolved, I'd want Hansen and Gore in a Fed Pen somewhere...

 

[westwall]

Italian law also gives very harsh sentences for false accusations, and even an offhand comment to the media can qualify. For example, Amanda Knox was cleared of murder, but sentenced to 3 years for "calunnia", because during her days of grueling interrogation, she had broken down and just named some guy in order to get the interrogation to stop.

So, as westwall demostrates, all denialists need to avoid Italy, since they could face immediate imprisonment there. After all, fraudulent accusations against honest climate scientists are one of the perverted foundations of denialism, a way that denialist cultists identify with each other and bond with each other.

We have family in Bergamo so we travel there frequently! Honest climate scientists...that's an oxymoron..just like military intelligence!

What is the differance between your condemnation of real scientists and that of the Italians jailing seismologists for inability to predict earthquakes? There is none. You are exactly the same as the Italians.

Hansen and the rest of the climate scientists predicted much of what we are seeing now concerning the melt in Greenland and in the Arctic Ice Cap. But they were far too conservative. Even the most 'alarmist' of them did not predict most of the Arctic Sea Ice gone in the summer by 2020.

You people started out 30 years ago with "there is no warming happening". You only ceased that lie, and you knew it to be that, when it became obvious to all that there is a rapid warming in progress. Then it became, "yes, it is warming, but mankind has nothing to do with it". In spite of the physics of GHGs.

I am willing to bet that if there were to be a major climatic event that proved to be catastrophic, such as another flood period on the Missouri and Mississippi, and one of the upper dams gives way, that you would be beating the drums for imprisonment of the climatologists because they did not specifically predict that event.

This bullshit of the demonization of working scientists because their conclusions do not agree with your politics is what I find so repungent in your posts.

Once again, AGU conferance coming up. Are you going to make a presentation there? If not, why not? Present some real science and people will listen. But they don't have much patience with crackpots. There will be real scientists making presentations there. How many will state that AGW does not exist?

The difference is the "real scientists" you are so proud of are making predictions that will affect the populations of the world to their detriment. Furhter, laws will be passed that will set real climate research back by decades and the "real scientists" you are so proud of are doing it for material gain. In other words they make more money based on how dire their predictions are.

They have also engaged in willful corruption of science and have actively persecuted those scientists who disagreed with them. They are a pox on science and have perverted the peer review process so as to render it meaningless.

That good enough for ya!

Mann has recently sued Mark Steyn and NRO, this is going to be quite fun to watch. He had allready sued Dr. Ball but when Ball's discovery requests were delivered Mann suddenly lost his gonads and so far he has been unwilling to produce them which is a violation of Canadian law. He is close to being charged with Contempt of Court.

This just go's to show that he is all bark and no bite, just like his "science".

He's going to lose and lose big in both cases. By the time Steyn is done with him he will be broke.