Venice mayor blames climate change for ‘apocalyptic’ floods
Luigi Brugnaro calls for action after high tides kill two

Venice was “on the verge of apocalypse” after the highest tide in more than 50 years left much of the Italian city under water, a local official has said.
Two people died as the tide peaked at 187cm at 10.50pm on Tuesday, just short of the 194cm seen in 1966.
The BBC says the deaths came on the island of Pellestrina, a thin strip of land that separates the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. A man was electrocuted as he tried to start a pump in his home, and a second person was found dead in a different part of the island.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A shopkeeper told Italy’s public broadcaster Rai: “The city is on its knees.”
The mayor says the flooding is a direct result of climate change. The highest water levels in the region in more than 50 years would leave “a permanent mark”, said Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro. “Now the government must listen. These are the effects of climate change... the costs will be high.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Get your first six issues for £6–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Brugnaro said the damage was “huge” and “dramatic”, and that he would declare a state of disaster, warning that a project to help prevent the Venetian lagoon suffering devastating floods “must be finished soon”.
The Daily Mail reports that locals claim corruption has repeatedly delayed a barrier protection system which could have prevented the disaster.
The episode was historic. St Mark’s Basilica was flooded for only the sixth time in 1,200 years, according to church records. Pierpaolo Campostrini, a member of St Mark’s council, said four of those floods had now occurred within the past 20 years.
The mayor said the iconic landmark suffered “grave damage,” in the flooding with fears of structural damage to the basilica’s columns.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Interest rate cut: the winners and losers
The Explainer The Bank of England's rate cut is not good news for everyone
-
Quiz of The Week: 3 – 9 May
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will robots benefit from a sense of touch?
Podcast Plus, has Donald Trump given centrism a new lease of life? And was it wrong to release the deadly film Rust?
-
The worst coral bleaching event breaks records
The Explainer Bleaching has now affected 84% of the world's coral reefs
-
Why UK scientists are trying to dim the Sun
In The Spotlight The UK has funded controversial geoengineering techniques that could prove helpful in slowing climate change
-
Electric ferries are becoming the next big environmental trend
Under the Radar From Hong Kong to Lake Tahoe, electric ferries are the new wave
-
Ukraine is experiencing an 'ecocide' and wants Russia to pay
Under the radar The environment is a silent victim of war
-
How wild horses are preventing wildfires in Spain
Under The Radar The animals roam more than 5,700 hectares of public forest, reducing the volume of combustible vegetation in the landscape
-
Scientists invent a solid carbon-negative building material
Under the radar Building CO2 into the buildings
-
Dozens of deep-sea creatures discovered after iceberg broke off Antarctica
Under the radar The cold never bothered them anyway
-
Earth's climate is in the era of 'global weirding'
The Explainer Weather is harder to predict and more extreme