Flooding in Venice worsens off-season amid climate change

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice saw a record five exceptional floods over six weeks in late 2019 that triggered fears about the impact of worsening climate change on the Italian lagoon city beloved by tourists. But the repeated invasion of brackish lagoon water into St. Mark’s Basilica this summer serves as a quiet and insidious reminder that the threat isn’t receding. St. Mark’s Basilica sits at Venice’s lowest spot and offers a unique position to monitor the impact of rising seas on the city. St. Mark’s chief caretaker says the Basilica was flooded an unprecedented five times this August. The fate of Venice and other cities endangered by rising seas will be a key topic at the U.N. climate meeting in Glasgow that starts later this month.