I used to live in Innsbruck, Austria. I was stuck there because of a medical condition. It was the most boring place I ever lived. I used to escape when I could to Munich (a 2 hour drive) and when I was up for a longer drive, to Venice (4 hours). Munich had a great art scene. Venice is a great art scene. I grew to love the city even if I wasn't the biggest fans of an 8 to 8 and a half hour round trip drive. I was horrified on Thursday when I hear that the flooding in St Marks Square was thigh deep. I can remember when planks had to be laid across it, the flooding being ankle high. Thigh deep... that's like a swim!And the following day, CNN reported that the province's regional council flooded for the first time in its history.
And the council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace started to take in water around 10 p.m. local time, as councilors were debating the 2020 regional budget, Democratic Party councilor Andrea Zanoni said in a long Facebook post."Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties [neo-fascist parties which are climate change deniers on a Trumpian scale] rejected our amendments to tackle climate change," Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water.Among the rejected amendments were measures to fund renewable sources, to replace diesel buses with "more efficient and less polluting ones," to scrap polluting stoves and reduce the impact of plastics, he said.Zanoni went on to accuse Veneto regional president Luca Zaia, who is a member of Matteo Salvini's far-right League Party, of presenting a budget "with no concrete actions to combat climate change."The regional council's spokesman Alessandro Ovizach confirmed to CNN that the council was flooded after discussing amendments to the 2020 budget-- without specifying which ones.
The council's Thursday and Friday meetings were moved to Treviso, which is inland. Venice's mayor Luigi Brugnaro blamed climate change for the high tides and said the flooding was "a wound that will leave a permanent mark."Friday, the BBC reported a 6 foot inundation in Venice with 80% of the city impacted. The right-wing climate denial parties are freaking out and now denying their denialism!I'm going to let you guess why I'm including this short clip by Naomi Klein, which she shot yesterday, in this post. No mention of Venice or Italy per se but... Just watch and spend a minute thinking about it. Want to help a movement candidate reach office? Here, bothers and sisters. We're not going to get many chances at getting this right.
