By Ray Rivers
October 2, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
It seems everybody wants to have a referendum these days. I’m in Italy visiting Venice this week and it turns out the folks out here are planning a ‘Scotland-style’ plebiscite for independence from Italy.
Some separation enthusiasts ran an on-line poll last March and claimed that an overwhelming number of respondents wanted to separate from Italy. Interestingly, like the Scots, they still wanted to stay in the EU and be a part of NATO.
Gazette columnist cover Venetian plans to secede from Italy.
That survey has encouraged Veneto, the regional entity of five million people, which includes the cities of Venice and Verona, to hold a more formal referendum. In fact a referendum was the basis for this north-eastern region to join Italy in the first place. Veneto has a colourful history. It was occupied by, among others, Attila the Hun, the Romans, the French and the Austrians. And as we know from reading Shakespeare, there was also a long period of self-government as well.
I wasn’t the only one visiting Venice. Besides the usual early autumn tourist hordes, it turns out that George Clooney, the actor, chose Venice for his wedding with British human-rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin last weekend. No, I wasn’t invited to the wedding, but I still admire Clooney as an actor, and I like the way he speaks out on the things he stands for, especially global climate change.
The city of Venice had been sinking for ages, partly from all the building on the islands and partly from the depression caused by pumping out too much ground water. Government has taken measures to eliminate that sinking feeling, but its still going to be a wet future for this ‘city of bridges’. Global climate change has already raised water levels and the future will see the Adriatic blanketing a wide swath of coastal north-eastern Italy. Fish will swim where mankind used to walk.
New Yorkers march in the streets to save the planet. Burlington had a smaller crowd.
A huge crowd demonstrated in New York last week, as world leaders met to decide what to do about climate change. Over three hundred thousand people came out to demand action, but all they got from the government leaders present, were the usual well-intentioned but meaningless speeches. President Obama got up to the podium to tell the rest of the world that it should do as he says – not as he does (or doesn’t). But at least his sentiments sounded sincere.
Canada, on the other hand, ganged up with Australia and Japan to make sure that the Kyoto Treaty was dead and could never be used to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, our Harper, who was in New York at the time of the climate change meeting, didn’t even show his face. And that was probably just as well, since the last thing anybody needs to hear is another speech with more promises that his government has no intention of keeping.
China, now the world’s largest polluter did promise to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions a tad – but not nearly enough. And Russia is too busy selling its vast fossil fuel reserves, or threatening its neighbours, to even think about reducing its carbon footprint. Europe is still optimistic that it can make progress. Munich, for example, is promising to eventually become carbon-free, but their biggest worry today is ensuring a good supply of Russian natural gas.
It was Peter Drucker who characterized management as the science of doing things right – and leadership, the art of doing the right thing. Many world leaders came to New York last week to talk about mitigating an ever-worsening global climate change. Sadly, there was little evidence of good management and no sign of leadership whatsoever.
The locals in Venice told me that the worst floods come in November and December. I was in Venice at the end of November a few years back, while attending one of those climate change conference. Water, water everywhere, and raised wooden platforms set on top of the sidewalks to avoid getting one’s feet too wet. It does really kind of takes away from the romance of it all.
George Clooney marries in Venice. Gazette columnist wasn’t invited.
But there was a lot of romance at the Clooney wedding party, I heard. A hundred people, movie stars and other friends, added their weight onto the sunken ground of Venice. George Clooney, Willie Nelson, Neil Young have been outspoken on climate change and they have been attacked in return. But the way I look at it – if not them, then who will take the moral high ground – certainly not Canada’s PM.
Heading back to the train to take me from Venice to Florence, I took the Vaporetto (ferry service) and couldn’t help wondering about the amount of carbon emissions pouring out of the stacks of these boats as thy feverishly criss-crossed the canals. And I couldn’t help feeling guilty at having come here and adding to the carbon footprint of Venice and Italy. But then it is good that I am aware, at least, and I suppose I’m going to have to get used to that feeling or do something about it.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province.
Links
Venice Referendum Veneto Issues Venice
Obama climate Change Harper and the Climate Conference Climate Change Demonstration
Canada and Climate Change Renewable Energy Optimistic Energy
