I fully agree with accountability both on the job and in one's personal life. I mean if you have done others wrong, then own up to it and take responsibility for your actions. It's as simple as that, but wow, what's happening to these men is a tad harsh if you ask me.
In 2009 a severe earthquake rocked central Italy, killing more than 300 people and injuring countless others in its wake. It's a devastating tragedy to say the least, but should six human individuals be held accountable for an act of mother nature and something that was virtually out of their hands?
Apparently so, according to the Italian government. Six scientists, along with one government official have just been sentenced to prison for failing to accurately predict the severity of the earthquake. The men will now spend six years behind bars as a result of their actions or lack thereof. According to prosecutors, the scientists and official down played the risks of the quake in L'Aquila, Italy, after a series of tremors shook the city in early 2009. On April 6, 2009, a magnitude-6.3 quake hit, killing 309 people and destroying local architecture. At the trial, Italian authorities said the men were convicted of manslaughter not for failing to predict the earthquake, "but for inadequately interpreting the level of risk facing the city." Wow, these people should have a listen to some of our weather predictions. I'm thinking a pretty large number of our forecasts would be presented from behind bars.
Seriously though, we're dealing with weather. It's unpredictable in its entirety. We have trained individuals who are doing their best to be accurate but I'm sure systems aren't fail proof. How could they be? At the beginning of the trial - in September 2011 - apparently a number of U.S. earthquake scientists expressed dismay at the idea of subjecting earthquake risk assessment to the criminal justice system but to no avail. "Our ability to predict earthquake hazards is, frankly, lousy," Seth Stein, a professor of Earth sciences at Northwestern University in Illinois, told LiveScience then. "Criminalizing something would only make sense if we really knew how to do this and someone did it wrong... To predict a large quake on the basis of a relatively commonplace sequence of small earthquakes and to advise the local population to flee" would constitute "both bad science and bad public policy..."
In the aftermath, they may as well scratch this career choice off the list in Italy because who in their right mind would want to take the chance? Accountability is one thing but this downright ridiculous.
