Deadly floods that have struck the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna, leaving at least 14 people dead, are another tragic reminder of the accelerating climate crisis, according to researchers. The floods come after years of severe drought in the region, which has compacted the soil, reducing its ability to absorb rainfall.
As temperatures rise, droughts become more frequent and intense, drying up the soil and changing its permeability, says Mauro Rossi, a researcher at the Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection, part of the Italian National Research Council. Extreme amounts of water falling over a short period of time exacerbate runoff, Rossi said, causing excess water to drain towards the rivers, which respond by “overflowing, burrowing and changing their riverbeds.”
More than 20 rivers in the region have burst their banks, leading to a wave of 280 landslides, according to the Civil Protection department. Among the victims was an 84-year-old man whose body was found in the courtyard of his house in the town of Faenza. A married couple also lost their lives in the village of Ronta di Cesena.
Up to 20,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and as many as 27,000 have been left without power, according to Enel, an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. The floods have also devastated farmland. More than 5,000 farms were under water in Emilia Romagna, which includes an area known as “Fruit Valley,” as well as corn and grain fields. Greenhouses and stables have also been flooded, with reports of drowned animals, according to Coldiretti, a farmers association.
Stefano Bonaccini, the President of Emilia Romagna, described the scale of the destruction as a “new earthquake,” just days before the anniversary of the earthquake that ripped through the region in 2012, killing 28 people. “We have rebuilt almost everything, but today we are facing another earthquake,” Bonaccini said at a press conference on Thursday.
While it’s too soon to know for certain what role climate change played in the floods, scientists warn that, as levels of planet-heating pollution increase, the world can expect more frequent and more severe extreme weather events. Italy is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to its geography, which puts it at high risk of landslides, and because it is surrounded by the warming Mediterranean Sea, increasing the chance of strong storms.
Federico Spadini, a spokesman for Greenpeace Italy’s climate campaign, said extreme weather events “risk becoming the norm if we do not urgently address the causes of the climate crisis”. “We are not facing simple episodes of bad weather, but real tragedies fueled by global warming that have clear perpetrators. Continuing to extract and burn gas and oil is a crime that will increasingly aggravate the climate emergency, with loss of life, environmental destruction, and serious economic and social impacts,” Spadini added.