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 the mayor of 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.
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