In a blow to science and rational thought, Italian prosecutors have succeeded in convicting seven of that country’s leading scientists of manslaughter for failing to predict the 2009 earthquake that struck central Italy. Despite objections from the world’s science community that such accurate and consistent predictions are still impossible, the government blamed the scientists for failing to alert the public that an earthquake was coming.
The earthquake killed more than 300 people. The scientists were given six-year-prison sentences for their failure as members of a national “Great Risks Commission.” The scientists were accused of giving “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” about small tremors in the weeks and months before the earthquake.
At best, scientists insist, they can make low probability forecasts not true predictions. Yet, the court still convicted the defendants, including Enzo Boschi, former head of the national Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. The scientists stood in disbelief at the verdict. To make matters worse, the trial was held in an Apennine town devastated by the earthquake. As a fundamental measure of due process, one would have thought a change of venue would have been in order. Instead, the Italian judiciary held the trial on the site of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake in L’Aguila.
The verdict is an outrage to both science and the law. It will now go on appeal in the Italian system.
Dumb. The scientists never should have been charged. Let’s hope they prevail in the appeal.
Rome traffic is scary! I was riding and tried not to look at what appeared to be pure chaos. Glad I went to Venice, but wouldn’t go back. Florence is one of my all-time favorite cities.
Gene, right here in our judicial district, I was testifying in an Atkins hearing and the judge pronounced that the defendant must be “…unable to have any adaptive behavior at all.” I made the tactical mistake of calling the judge on his total ignorance of the subject, and he has spent the past ten years telling everyone he knows how incompetent I am.
And just yesterday, the same idiot Italian “judges” ruled that cell phones are proven to cause cancer, while the science is still undecided.
Who needs to join the mafia when corrupt and incompetent judges can put themselves above the law? They’re likely the same idiots from the Amanda Knox trial.
coming soon… 10 weather forecasters were burned at the stake today because it was a beautiful sunny day, but they had predicted rain. Plans are now underway to toss 7 vestal virgins into Mount Etna, just to be safe…
Welcome back to the Dark Ages… unbelievable
OS,
I’m still hung up on the whole “thunder is God being angry/thunder is God needing a Tums” issue. What if God is angry because the angels won’t bring him a Tums? If so, why can’t he make some himself? He supposedly created a universe in six days. You’d think a batch of antacids would be a breeze.
I think I’ll go with thunder is the sound caused by lightning instead.
Sounds as if Italy has retreated to the Dark Ages blaming witches for plagues, frogs for warts, broken mirrors/black cats/ladders for sudden deaths … in other words, beliefs and notions not based on reason or knowledge.
What do they hope to accomplish by punishing these scientists for not being able to predict the devastation of an earthquake?
The Japanese suffered one of the largest earthquakes in its history followed by one of the nation’s worst tsunamis and compounded by the sudden loss of electrical power leading to a large nuclear meltdown..
Human life is fragile and tomorrow is never guaranteed.
This is the direction the US is traveling if the trend toward anti-science continues. School books based on the principles that the Bible trumps proven science, just for starters. Miracles cause things to happen rather than physics or chemistry. The Grand Canyon was caused by Noah’s flood, dinosaurs co-existed with humans and the earth is only six to nine thousand years old, depending on who you talk to.
Welcome to the future of education, friends.
Gene, Amen. I have only been to southern Italy since that is where my family immigrated from in the early 1900’s[Naples and Bari]. As you probably know the north and south are quite different. Our next trip will be northern. I know some Americans who live in Italy and it’s a love/hate relationship. This woman I know in Rome is an art historian. She is older now and gives art tours. She grew up in NYC but has lived in Rome for almost 30 years now. Being a NYer, she is not averse to expressing her opinion. She hates their healthcare and has actually returned to NY for a surgery. There are too many stories of local and national corruption from her to relate. She took us to a famous restaurant near City Hall in Rome for lunch. It’s where all the pols and press hobnob. She pointed out some pols [“He’s organized crime”, “he is Belusconi’s bitch”, “he just got out of prison for fraud and immediately was re-elected.” Having lived in Chicago I understood. The meal was the second best I have ever eaten. The restaurant has been there for CENTURIES.
nick,
I had some Italian landlords when I was in law school. A very nice middle aged couple from Alessandria, between Genoa and Milan. I used to drink espresso and/or grappa and smoke cigarettes with the wife for study breaks. They had stories about bribery and corruption that would make your head spin. Apparently when they still lived there, you couldn’t get even basic services like utilities and phone service without paying bribes – sometimes more than one. They had one story – about moving an elderly relative into a medically supervised rest facility – that was so terrible it would have pissed Job off. I’d love to visit, especially Rome, Padua, Venice and Naples, but live there? No way.
Darren,
It’s almost as if they learned nothing from the Church’s treatment of Galileo.
Italians understand food, art, music, film, fashion on a profound level. The problem is not much else matters to them so they suck @ just about everything else. If you think their legal system is bad, try driving in Italy, particularly Rome. I’ve lived and/or driven in just about every major US city. NOTHING compares to Rome. I had to get our family from Rome to Sorrento for the New Years weekend. General Patton couldn’t have helped me w/ an armored division.
Sounds more like appeasement of the locals than justice for justice’s sake.
I also am concerned the disincentive this casts upon geologists to continue to practice their profession in Italy or for students to obtain degrees in this. If one could face prosecution for not being perfect in such a case why would a person risk this? So as a result there are less people willing to become involved and the science and technology diminishes and there are in fact even less predictions made so more people are not saved.
I’m not sure if this is the dumbest…… But it’s right up there…… You think bush, Cheney, Rove would be interested in a trip to Italy, Spain or some European country…. Because if they would convict these men….. Surely a budget crime family conviction would be not to far of a stretch…..
Perhaps they should skip the whole pointless science thing and go with a really reliable method. I read years ago about a church in Italy (sorry the details are fuzzy & I’m not willing to google at the moment) that has the blood of a saint in a vial. They take it out once a year on the saints holy day and, if it turns liquid, the town is safe from earthquakes for the year.
Italy should forgo the hokum of science for the knowledge of religion! If the blood misses it is simply because they allow Jews and Protestants to go unmolested through the streets. Also some self-flagellation will make things right. Onward to the 11the Century Brothers!
After reading an article like this…. it’s easy to wish that the Mayans prediction for the end of the World really does pan out……….. This is one of the dumbest things I ever heard of….. If there’s any jail time involved, the prosecuters should serve it.
Simply a stupid and dangerous decision.
This is truly an outrage. Reason and common sense have left the building. I have to say it sounds more like they were tried and convicted for being scientists rather that all powerful infallible wizards. This conviction will surely make scientists wonder if Italy is a safe place for them.
On a human note my heart goes out to these scientists. They must be devastated by this decision and the damage the prosecution has done to their families and their futures. Now the earthquake has claimed 6 more victims with the assistance of an out of control criminal “justice”system.
Quite possibly the dumbest thing the Italians have done since putting Mussolini in charge. I mean the concept of “impossible” really isn’t that difficult to grasp. It may be difficult to accept, but it is what it is.
It’s official: there is one legal system more bizarre than the USofAs.
(If you don’t count the Libertarian paradise of Somalia that is).
That is crazy.
Scientists have been accosted when they try to warn about everything from earthquake / tsunami danger to global warming induced climate change, including sea level rise NOW going on in the high population centers in the U.S.A.
They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t … bad law Italy, bad law.