The city of Venice is slowly sinking; ground floors of buildings become useless.
The ocean waters are rising one annual inch.
Flooding is frequent, daily in winter.
Sidewalks float away.
The mayor says: “buy tall rain boots”.
The population of the historic center of venice is 60,000 souls, one third of what it was only 50 years ago.
There are fewer schools, doctors, real stores; more luxury hotels and vendors of carnival masks.
On any given day 100,000 tourists come in and out of the city. 15 million tourists per year.
Gigantic cruise ships shimmy up to Saint Mark’s square. They displace water.
Water in canals polluted by sewage and motor boat traffic.
Garbage is collected in hand carts; efforts exacerbated by tourists’ consumption of packaged products;
Consumption, of the city itself.
Resources:
- Read about the Venice Water Authority’s MOSE project on www.salve.it.
- Watch the high tides.
- Support sustainable tourism in Venice by reading about this movement online.
- Read the tips for sustainable tourism on arttrav.
- Learn about the ecology of venice and donate to Context Travel fund for sustainable travel by taking the Ecology of Venice tour.
If you’re going to Venice, you’re going to need a very detailed map in order to get “off the beaten track”, and you’re going to want that map to be waterproof, like this one:
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