Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni cut short her presence at the G7 summit in Hiroshima this weekend to visit the flood devastated Romagna in north east Italy. In Rome, at about the same time, climate change activists poured black vegetable dye into the Trevi Fountain in protest against government support for fossil fuels, which they say are ‘the cause’ of the floods.
One thing is certain: Italy will not stop the destruction wrought by such floods with electric cars, wind farms and heat pumps. Nor, in the short to medium term – and possibly never – will such things on their own prevent climate change either. What Italy needs is proper flood defences.
Me, my Italian wife and our six children, live in the countryside with our dog and donkey at the epicentre of the flood zone near Ravenna, in north east Italy, half a mile from a big river and a mile from the sea.
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