Communicating Risk
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2013
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s the fourth anniversary of the earthquake which devastated the city of L’Aquila in Italy and which led to the conviction of six scientists and an official who failed to predict the disaster. Scientists and statisticians worldwide were alarmed at the six-year sentences for manslaughter the seven accused received. It was feared the prospect of being put on trial would put off scientists from even trying to communicate risk – a very difficult business. But the risk assessors’ pendulum seems to have swung the other way. Data and alarms about tremors are being issued regularly, triggering school closures and building evacuations. But how useful is this information? Ruth Alexander speaks to Ian Main, professor of seismology and rock physics at Edinburgh University in the UK, who puts the risks into context.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:03.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use |
| 0:07.0 | go to BBCWorldService.com slash podcasts. |
| 0:13.0 | Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander. |
| 0:18.0 | It's the fourth anniversary of an earthquake, |
| 0:21.0 | which devastated the city of La Cuella in Italy and made headlines around the globe. |
| 0:26.0 | World update from the BBC. |
| 0:29.0 | Coming up a powerful earthquake hits Central Italy, |
| 0:32.0 | we'll have the latest from rescue workers. |
| 0:35.0 | More than 300 people were killed. |
| 0:38.0 | Natural disasters are always shocking, |
| 0:40.0 | but this incident became extraordinary. |
| 0:43.0 | Six scientists and an official were put on trial |
| 0:46.0 | for failing to give proper warnings before the disaster. |
| 0:50.0 | 5,000 scientists around the world signed an open letter to the Italian president |
| 0:55.0 | saying there was no way the accused could have predicted the earthquake. |
| 0:59.0 | There was a feeling that science itself was being put on trial, |
| 1:03.0 | but in October, the seven were convicted. |
| 1:06.0 | According Italy has jailed six scientists and a government official for manslaughter |
| 1:11.0 | because they'd underestimated the risk of an earthquake. |
| 1:14.0 | The seven received sentences of six years each. |
| 1:17.0 | In the end, the case wasn't about the scientist's ability to predict earthquakes, |
... |
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