Venice must save Venice

Venice is still under siege of bigger-than-ever cruise ships – and unfortunately will be so for some time to come. The current mayor of Venice proudly calls himself a “man of business” – and business it is in Venice!

Thousands of visitors day in, day out, 439% increase in cruise ship passenger in the past 15 years. The depredations caused by the ships are immense and threaten the very existence and survival of what is most important for the city: the lagoon.
If no attention is paid to the already fragile and endangered lagoon and its ecosystem, it will not be able to sustain itself and cannot survive. Climate Revolution’s dear friend Jane da Mosto, environmental scientist and co-founder of we are here venice, tells us that the lagoon is essential for the city’s well-being; the lagoon nurtures Venice – if you don’t take care of the lagoon, you destroy Venice!

The draft a modern cruise ship measures 9 ½ metres. Huge underwater tunnels have to be carved out of the seabed so that ships can enter the lagoon, when doing so creating (artificial) waves with very negative impacts on the salt marsh – the coastal ecosystem. In simpler terms: the salt marsh is being wrecked.

More, what is known in physics as “The Archimedes Principle” states: “any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object”; the object is the cruise ship, 360 metres long, larger than the Eiffel Tour, its weight 1.700 Giga tons. One does not have to be Archimedes to understand that cruise ships and lagoons are not best friends.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, himself not a Venetian and not very much interested in the city’s unique cultural heritage and the concerns of real Venetians (the ones that are left), is very well aware of the problem; sadly his interests lie somewhere else. One imagines him saying “Do not tell me about cruise ships. I have no time for this. We are here to do business”, Après moi le deluge; the lagoon can wait and be looked after by my successor. Tourists are pouring in, 30 million annually, the ones coming from the cruise ships we increased by 28% this year, Canale Grande is busier than ever – what a great job I am doing!” Prime Minster Matteo Renzi might agree: “Just make sure money is coming in. With the lagoon we will deal later. What are they talking about anyway; all the reports I have been given (by my people) say that the cruise ships are fine. Tell these Venetians to stop panicking!” The cruise ships are seen by the government as “just the natural extension of Venice as a world renowned port city”. Jane da Mosto knows better. She has done her research, her scientific studies. “Currently there is no responsible governance in Venice, no institutions that are building a responsible, long term future” Jane says. “The threats to Venice are everywhere you look, and I have an insuppressible obsession with pointing them out. But this is mostly because I believe CHANGE is possible, and many of the issues here are also relevant to other places”.

Are today’s visitors to Venice are the lucky ones being part of the last generation that will enjoy culture that has thrived for more than thousand years or is change possible? Can Venice be kept as a city of great beauty, supreme civilization and enduring history? The problems are variegated: mass tourism, pollution, commuting, extensive boat traffic in Venice’s “water city”, a short-term exploitative grab-and-run economy, population decline, crumbling palazzi and historical buildings and artefacts of unique value …. all this needs to be seriously addressed. The City Council and the government in Rome need to start thinking in terms of “what do we owe the local population; is it not our public duty to keep Venice safe”.

Jane told us that even the CEO of one of the biggest cruise ship operators is near the point of frustration with the politicians. “Nothing sensible is coming from them” he says. Jane spoke with him on 2 occasions and he is not outright averse to change and making things better for Venice – issues such as size and amount of the ships, number of total passengers, size of groups coming onshore – at the moment there are groups up 70 people, the number has to substantially be scaled down – waste management, air pollution.

Jane will see him again to discuss possible solutions, meanwhile she is getting ready to realise we are here venice’s latest venture: the “Citizen Science Project”; Venice’s air pollution will be measured with 3-D printed air-pollution measurement devices. Jane got in contact with scientists in London, they know how to design the system and monitoring network (Jane asked us to be of help and meet them – exciting!), and once the devices are ready (produced locally) Jane will hand them out to all her friends and many other people in Venice and the project can begin! The air quality can at last be measured on days with cruise ships and on days without them.

“The authorities are not properly monitoring the situation. We will confront them with the facts!

We have to get things into own hands; we cannot allow them to crush our beloved Venice”.

We will see Jane soon again …. and keep you informed about developments.

Let’s get these cruise ships out of Venice!