"The regional council, controlled by a president from Italy’s far-right League party, rejected a host of climate measures on Wednesday. Immediately after the vote, the council chambers flooded." By some estimates, 12 minutes after the vote was taken the water started coming in.

Mother Nature does a mic drop. tweeted one person.

Source: Gizmodo

Venice is reeling from some of the worst flooding in 50 years, driven in part by sea level rise. The high water has put the city under a state of emergency and, in theory, should be a huge wakeup call that it’s all hands on deck to combat climate change. But the regional council, controlled by a president from Italy’s far-right League party, rejected a host of climate measures on Wednesday. Immediately after the vote, the council chambers flooded.

There comes a point where you can’t even laugh at on-the-noseness of 2019. This is one of those times.

Andrea Zanoni, a council member and chair of the environment committee, posted photos of the flooded chambers on Wednesday night. It’s the first time the council chambers have ever flooded. The building sits right on Venice’s Grand Canal, and its flood protections appear to have failed.

But the timing couldn’t be more absurd. Zanoni noted in his Facebook post that councilors had been voting on amendments to the region’s 2020 budget prior to the flood. He said the “budget does not contain any concrete action to counteract climate change,” and all amendments put forward to address climate change like boosting renewable energy, replacing diesel buses, and improving efficiency were rejected. The region has contributed relatively little to climate change, but then everything everywhere will need to shift to avert the worst of the climate chaos.