It’s extremely late and I should really be going to bed, but I just watched a really cool PBS documentary about the city of Venice and some of the problems it faces in the near future.
Apparently, the whole city is built on a salt marsh, which has always been sinking since the city was built. The people have always found ways around the sinking problem (such as using canals to route water around the city), but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep the city above water because of rising sea levels (caused by changing weather patterns and global warming).
What really caught my attention is a solution they’ve been considering for many years. It is a system of movable dams that would be used only during high tide seasons to keep water out of the city. A lot of people are against it because of the environmental affects, but no one has been able to come up with a better solution. The debate has been drawn out for over thirty years now! One reason it has lasted so long is that the government of Italy is replaced every two years or so, making it difficult for big decisions like this one to reach conclusions efficiently.
There was a lot to digest in the documentary, but I found it extremely interesting. I learned a lot of stuff I would never have realized otherwise. Most of the info can be found on NOVA’s website listed below.
