Venetian council room floods after councilors reject climate proposals
(Photo: Andrea Zanoni/Facebook)
- The City of Venice is currently enduring the worst flooding to strike it in 50 years.
- The mayor has declared it to be a result of climate change.
- During a debate over next years budget, and right after rejecting environmental proposals, the main chamber of the regional council flooded.
In a twist so on the nose you couldn’t make it up, the regional council room of Venice was flooded last night immediately after the council rejected budget amendments to fight climate change.
The city is currently enduring the worst flooding in 50 years. More than three-quarters of the city is underwater. In some places, the water levels are more than six feet deep. The water damaged the Crypt of St. Mark’s Basilica, and a state of emergency has beendeclared.
The councilors for the region of Veneto were discussing next year’s budget as the water began to creep in according to councilor Andrea Zanoni’s Facebook post.
The main portion of it reads:
“Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change,”
In a statement to CNN, the regional president Luca Zaia rejected the notion that he and his coalition were inattentive to the environment, saying, “Beyond propaganda and deceptive reading, we are voting (for) a regional budget that spent €965 million over the past three years in the fight against air pollution, smog, which is a determining factor in climate change. To say that we do nothing is a lie.”
It seems even situational irony delivered by the fates isn’t enough to convince some people.
The council has moved their meetings to nearby Treviso until such a time that their council chambers are usable again.
How does this tie to Climate Change?
The risks posed by climate change to Venice are both obvious; it is literally on the water, and well known. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, spoke to the issue this week. After saying the flooding had brought the great city “to its knees,” he declared the exceptional flooding and damages to be “the effects of climate change” in a Twitter post.
He isn’t wrong. Recent studies have suggested that if climate change continues unabated, Venice will be history in 100 years.
What will become of Venice?
Venice is both a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the world’s great cities with a long and glorious history. To lose it to climate change would be unthinkable.
However, it is already sinking at the rate of one-fifth of an inch per year. This, combined with rising sea levels, may mean that the great city, already drowning in tourists, may soon literally be drowning.
There is some hope though. Recently, the Italian Government launched the MOSE program, which is designed to “part the sea” and keep Venice afloat by introducing a system of flood gates. In theory, they would be able to stop high tides up to ten feet from flooding the city and could be raised or lowered at will. However, the project has been plagued by problems since the start and is currently on track to be finished 11 years behind schedule.
Italy has also passed legislation requiring the science of Climate change to be taught in schools to all students. If these steps will be enough remains to be seen.
