Details about Jeff Bezos and partner Lauren Sánchez's lavish Venice wedding spark outrage from locals: 'Holding their home hostage'
Jeff Bezos' upcoming wedding to Lauren Sánchez has residents of Venice, Italy, worried about what the lavish affair will mean to their city, both logistically and environmentally.
Bezos, the Amazon founder and one of the richest people in the world, is set to marry Sánchez on June 24 on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. As VnExpress reported, the wedding is a high-end event, with many celebrities, politicians, and businesspeople on the guest list.
For all of the publicity and news attention likely to be given to the wedding, there are also the couple's efforts to keep it relatively private. They have reportedly booked out five luxury hotels and reserved many, if not all, of Venice's water taxis, per the Daily Mail. Street closures and heightened security measures are also expected.
Some locals believe the event will bring an economic windfall to Venice. But others are more skeptical, with some saying Bezos and Sánchez are "holding their home hostage."
"It's going to be a great big nuisance," one tour guide told the Guardian. "I think most people are of the same opinion. We are exasperated by a whole series of problems related to overtourism and this is the umpteenth thing foisted on the city that we have to suffer."
With such a high concentration of wealthy people arriving at Venice for the event, there also arise significant environmental concerns.
In particular, many attendees are expected to travel to Italy on private jets — on which one flight can create more carbon pollution than the average person creates in an entire year. Others may stay on megayachts, which studies have found to be the largest polluters of any single item owned by the wealthy.
This is especially troubling in Venice, which has been hit hard by pollution and a warming climate. Rising sea levels have exacerbated the problem of Venice's famed lagoon and canals frequently flooding the city. Partly in response, the city has put in an elaborate flood-gate system to combat rising tides, but each use costs more than $160,000 — and possibly closer to $300,000, as The Washington Post has reported.
Bezos is also no stranger to backlash for his environmental habits. In particular, critics point to his $500 million yacht, Koru, that emits more than 7,000 tons of carbon each year, or about 450 times the average American's carbon footprint, according to calculations cited by the New York Post.
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