Rising waters threaten Venice: appeal to Draghi starts
In the COP26 agenda in Glasgow on climate change, there is not a single word to the danger facing the lagoon city, destined to disappear at the end of the century if we do not act with concrete solutions. For this the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts has sent an appeal to the Prime Minister. Attaching a report with the evaluations of the studies.
Difficult to delete those images, dating back to November 2019, in which the annual “water grandmother”Of Venice reached unprecedented levels, disfiguring the whole city and damaging churches, monuments, places of culture, archives. A situation that we would never want to relive again, but that could become customary and worsen if it is not fixed with concrete and practicable solutions. This is the theme of the letter sent by the members of the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts to the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, called to participate in the UN international conference on climate CoP26, scheduled for October 31 in Glasgow. In fact, the theme of Venice is not mentioned in the agenda of the summit, although the urgency to save the city and its heritage certainly cannot be postponed.
AN URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE VENICE FROM THE RISING OF THE SEA
“Mr. President of the Council, under your leadership and with the financial assistance of the European Union, this is the time when significant changes are taking place in the way Italy is led. This encouraged us to appeal to you to take note of the threat to the city and the lagoon of Venice by sea level rise and take action to prevent it, because not only Venice, but Italy as a whole is unprepared to face it. the effects, while the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and many other countries, regions and even cities are planning long-term how to cope with the future danger, some even beyond the next century”, Begins the appeal. “From at least one relative to the effects that the Mediterranean Sea level will increase at the same speed as the oceans, with lethal consequences for Venice if no action is taken. Several authoritative sources have stated that there is no doubt that the relative sea level will rise to an unsustainable value for the lagoon and its historic city. We also know when this will happen: probably by the end of the century, that is, within the life of our grandchildren.“. The text is corrected by scientific analyzes and future projections, which measure the seriousness of the situation: the mean sea level by 2100 could undergo an increase of 28-55 centimeters in the most optimistic scenario and from 63 to 101 centimeters in the most pessimistic one. It is useless to reiterate the urgency of a viable solution to halt the phenomenon, a much more effective measure than the MoSE which saw the light after a very long political and media battle and is not enough to cope with the speed with which the sea rise is proceeding.
THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. A WORLD WITHOUT VENICE
“How will the death of Venice happen? Contrary to popular imagination, it will not be suddenly swallowed by the waters; it will not disappear like the mythical Atlantis, but will rot and fall little by little: a horrible monument to our negligence and incompetence. The buildings are already attacked by the water because the level is higher today than it has ever been in the history of the Serenissima. If nothing is done to control the average water level, a tipping point will be reached too soon and we will inexorably see many of its buildings collapse.”, Continues the appeal. “It will become increasingly expensive and difficult to prevent the very fabric of Venice from collapsing, which is why it is imperative that the lagoon’s waters can be managed so that they do not rise much above their current level. We asked the architect in charge of an incomparable masterpiece, who already suffers a lot, to describe why the buildings are growing instability and what can be done for them in terms of first aid. But first aid is not a cure. Not least, the Turkish Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Orhan Pamuk, wrote about what the loss of Venice meant for him and for world culture. We invited him to do so to remind us all that the survival of Venice is important not only for Italy but for the whole world; much of the history of the Mediterranean is summed up in its stones and many of the greatest artists who have ever lived here have created masterpieces to praise God and the Republic“. Thus concludes the appeal: “Mr President of the Council, it is good for you to place Venice at the highest possible level in your already long list of commitments, and that you may have a new authority with adequate powers, albeit with more or less local political controversies and perhaps with an authoritative international component. , which is able to avoid decades of controversy and not only design a sustainable Venice and ecosystem for centuries to come, but also take a leading role in the various, different schemes that will be needed (to protect other parts of Italy as well as perhaps of the world) from rising sea levels“.
-Giulia Ronchi
