Severe flooding in Venice that has left much of the Italian city under water is a direct result of climate change, the mayor says.
The highest water levels in the region in more than 50 years would leave ‘a permanent mark’, Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.
‘Now the government must listen,’ he added. ‘These are the effects of climate change… the costs will be high.’
(BBC, November 13, 2019)
My heart goes out to the Venetians. But I’ve become even more inured to their plight than I am to that of Africans who suffer droughts with equal frequency and severity.
I have bemoaned the latter in many commentaries, notably venting compassion fatigue in “Another Drought and Famine Crisis in Africa,” August 31, 2011. As it happens, I have also bemoaned the former. Not to mention my indignation over notorious corruption and incompetence that have prevented the Venetians from emulating the “Dutch Masters” – who completed Delta Works and other barriers to prevent such flooding decades ago.
More to the point, as severe as this latest flood might be, my compassion fatigue is such that I shall suffice to reprise the commentary I wrote on the occasion of a similar flood seven years ago to the day.
Accordingly, here is “Now Venice Is Flooding,” November 13, 2012:
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Watching media coverage of Superstorm Sandy one could be forgiven for thinking that Al Gore’s apocalyptic prophecy about another biblical flood destroying the world was coming true.
Yet, as destructive as Sandy was, and as caused by climate change as it might have been, there is no denying that floodwaters have been causing even greater destruction for over 100 years. In fact, according to TIME, Sandy has nothing on the great storm of 1862:
This flood literally bankrupted the state because they were very dependent on property taxes and one-fourth of the state’s taxable real estate was destroyed. It was an economic catastrophe. They even moved the capital out of Sacramento for a while. We estimate a similar storm of that magnitude in California today would cause $725 billion in damages.
Not to mention the Yellow River flood of 1931 in China, which remains the “deadliest natural disaster ever recorded” – having killed over three million people. In any case, it is worth noting that the highest estimate of the (economic) damage Sandy caused is a relatively cheap $50 billion.
With that perspective in mind, consider that torrential rains now have three-quarters of Venice, the city of canals, drowning in floodwaters. Tourists were actually frolicking in its famed St Mark’s Square as if it were a Venetian water park. But this belies the damage it is causing to hundreds of homes, businesses, and historic sites.
And just as Sandy did not limit its destruction to New York City, Venice is not the only city affected. For here is how Roberto Pucci, the mayor of Massa Carrara in Tuscany, described the impact on his city:
It has been devastating. I saw at least six bridges destroyed in the hills, floods, landslides, vineyards, and olive groves swept away.
(Reuters, November 12, 2012)
Not surprisingly, just as American environmentalists attributed Sandy’s devastation to climate change, Italian environmentalists are doing the same.
Yet, here too, Venice being ravaged by floodwaters is hardly a new phenomenon:
Following a bad flood, the Doge Pietro Ziani had actually proposed moving citizens to Constantinople, conquered by Venice in 1204. The problem continued and in 1505 the Serenissima republic decided to set up a new council called the ‘Magistrato alle Acque’ to look into water levels and movement. However it was not until 1867 that a system of registration of water levels was introduced.
(Acqua Alta – Flood & High Water in Venice)
The point is that sea levels have been rising (whether from hurricanes or torrential rains) and causing destructive floods since time immemorial. Moreover, it is at best debatable that man-made carbon emissions are increasing the frequency and severity of “extreme weather.” After all, in relative terms, this increasing frequency and severity might be just as cyclical as the warming (and cooling) of our planet.
Of course, such is the egocentric nature of our world today that every natural disaster we experience we think is the worst in the history of mankind. It might be an inconvenient truth, but there was nothing apocalyptic about Sandy. What’s more, I’d be willing to bet my life savings that, despite Gore’s prophecy, floodwaters will never destroy Manhattan or Venice.
Related commentaries:
Global warming…?
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That reprised, I feel constrained to clarify that I am not a denier. I am just a progressive environmentalist who believes the developed nations that contributed most to climate change should contribute most to combating it.
But I resent rich tartuffes like Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio purchasing carbon indulgences. Because they think doing so entitles them to fly around the globe in gas-guzzling, CO2-emitting jets to lecture poor people about using the fossil fuels they depend on to survive.
I delineated my approach to fighting this existential spectre most recently in “The Only Way Caribbean Countries Can Help Fight Climate Change…,” April 25, 2019.
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drought and famine in Africa…
flooding in Venice…
fight climate change…