US: Science saw the Washington mudslide coming. Next time, let's Google it first
On the 22nd March a rain-soaked hillside by the north part of the Stillaguamish River gave way, releasing a square-mile rush of wet earth and rock into the outskirts of the town of Oso in Washington's North Cascade Mountains. The landslide left 28 people dead and 21 are missing.
However, according to Dr Daniel J Miller, clues were there long before. In his opinion piece published in The Guardian, he poses the questions: 'Can we nurture a culture that gets people listening to scientists – or at least sharing our work? Can we stop breeding a culture willing to risk disaster in the first place?'
Dr Miller is hopeful: "there will come a day when we can pull up maps on our iPhones that show known landslide hazards as prominently as directions to the nearest barber shop. Let’s make that day come sooner. We’ve become consumers of information; users of “big data”. Let’s become consumers of science. Tech giants and marketers have figured out how to get us to buy vast quantities of things we don’t need; can’t we use their techniques to get us to learn about things we do need?"
Dr Daniel J Miller is a geomorphologist who currently works at the Earth Systems Institute. He specializes in geology and seismology, and has researched and written extensively on landslides.