Recent insights into how the Earth works: embracing uncertainty

Discourse with Professor Chris Bean in which he discusses predictability and uncertainty in forecasting volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides. On 25 September 2018, Professor Chris Bean's discourse 'Recent insights into how the Earth works: embracing uncertainty' took place in Academy House. In the following interview, he outlines... • How the Earth interacts in its totality and how Earth’s components interact in the Earth’s system. • The difference between prediction and forecasting where he explains that science cannot always predict with precision what is going to happen in particular circumstances, for example, we cannot answer questions like ‘will there be an earthquake here tomorrow at 3.00 o’clock?'. However, we are able to forecast complicated things that are likely to happen in the Earth, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides but not exact predictions.