Thread: Italian scientist warned of deadly L'Aquila earthquake, but was dismissed by the gove

Italian scientist warned of deadly L'Aquila earthquake, but was dismissed by the government
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Updated Monday, April 6th 2009, 3:00 PM

An Italian scientist who accurately prophesized the earthquake in L'Aquila - and was branded an "imbecile" by the government - said Monday he is owed a big apology.

"There are people who should apologize and whose consciences should be heavy with what happened," said vulcanologist Giampaolo Giuliani.

"I am devastated, but also angry," he said. "I want them to apologize to all those who died."

The scientist, who says he can fortell earthquakes by measuring radon gas emissions from the earth's crust and monitoring the phases of Venus, had warned in TV and newspaper interviews that a "disastrous" event was about to happen in L'Aquila.

He even picked a date: Sunday, March 29.

His warnings, coupled with an ongoing series of small tremors in the area, prompted the Italian civilian defense agency to convene a meeting of quake experts on March 31.

They agreed no one can predict earthquakes and issued a statement saying so.

When April 1 arrived and nothing terrible happened, the head of the agency, Guido Bertolaso, officially denounced Giuliani as "one of these imbeciles who amuse themselves by spreading false news."

Giuliani's warnings were wiped from the internet and he was threatened with prison for fearmongering.

Turns out he was only a week off.

"Underestimating the application of new technologies simply because they are brought forward by researchers who are not part of the reigning establishment is an act of criminal negligence and today we are paying for its consequences," said nuclear physicist Michelangelo Ambrosio, who works with Giuliani.

But even as dust and faint cries continued to rise from the rubble of L'Aquila, Bertolaso kept insisting Giuliani - who also lost his house in the quake - was no Cassandra.

"There is no possibility of predicting an earthquake. This is a fact in the world's scientific community," he said.

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi ducked defensively at a press conference when pressed about Giuliani's warning, saying attention should be focused on relief efforts.

"We can discuss the predictability of earthquakes later," he said.

hkennedy@nydailynews.com

It amazes me how little faith people still have in Scientific prediction these days ie. global warming, levees failing in NOLA, etc. even though science has been able to predict trillions of events, yet billions of people still blindly accept everything they are told from ancient riddles in millenium old books.......