Demonstrators in Venice, Italy, declared victory after billionaire Jeff Bezos changed his wedding plans over protest concerns, Reuters reported.
Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, originally intended to exchange vows later this week at Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a former religious school in Venice's Cannaregio district, a popular area with a vibrant nightlife.
However, the nuptials were moved to the more isolated hall of the Arsenale over concerns that the newlyweds would face large demonstrations, per Reuters.
"The news that Bezos has run away from the Misericordia is a great victory for us," said Tommaso Cacciari of the "No Space for Bezos" anti-wedding campaign, according to Reuters.
Pressure on the controversial wedding grew in the days leading up to the event, with groups like Greenpeace joining the campaign.
On Monday, per Reuters, the group unfurled a giant banner in Venice's St. Mark's Square featuring an image of Bezos laughing along with the words: "If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax."
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Local officials have defended the wedding as an economic boon. The local governor has said he expected the event to bring as much as $55 million in spending to the region, per Reuters.
Reuters provided more context about the original and altered wedding plans: "After the wedding ceremony, whose location and exact date remain secret, although it is expected to be between Thursday and Saturday, some 200-250 VIP guests from show business, politics and finance will now head to a hall of the Arsenale. ... Surrounded by water and impossible to reach by land when connecting bridges are raised, the hall is considered a safer venue."
Selecting Venice as his wedding site could be seen as a darkly ironic choice for Bezos, given that the billionaire is known for traveling around in his heavily polluting megayacht as Venice and its famous piazzas slowly sink below rising seas.
Under some projections, Venice could disappear altogether by 2100, according to the BBC.
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Adding a polluting injury to the insult many locals have felt, as many as 90 private jets were expected to fly into local airports for the star-studded gathering of the world's uber-wealthy, per Reuters.
The staggering amount of heat-trapping pollution produced by private jets and megayachts contributes significantly to rising global temperatures and sea level rise.
According to Oxfam, over a 12-month period, Bezos' two private jets spent almost 25 days in the air. This air travel alone produced as much planet-heating pollution as the average U.S. Amazon employee would generate over 207 years.
Rising temperatures influence sea levels in two primary ways, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. First, as the planet warms, oceans absorb more heat, causing the water to expand and sea levels to rise.
Secondly, higher temperatures melt land ice in places like Antarctica and Greenland. This water runs off into the ocean, lifting sea levels around the world.
If the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt completely, sea levels would rise a catastrophic 260 feet, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Given the context, it is unsurprising that activists banded together to oppose Bezos' mass-pollution event, regardless of its potential economic impact.
"The problem is not the wedding; the problem is the system," Simona Abbate, a protester, told Reuters. "We think that one big billionaire can't rent a city for his pleasure."
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