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Humans have been on this planet for a considerable amount of time. The wonders we have worked to bring together are sprinkled all over Earth. We have the Asian countries which have heritage pieces which bring back the memories of the great rulers who lived to conquer. We also have the African continent which is deemed as the starting point for human evolution and is full of beautiful forests, deserts, and grasslands.
We have the American continents which are quite different but amazing in their own way. And then, we have Europe where resided the Greeks, and the Romans. These two groups have always been considered one of the greatest achievements of the European continent. And what they have given is now left in the European countries as memoirs of their excellence.
One such city in Europe, with a rich historical background and story, is Venice. This is the ‘city that floats’ and gets its name because of the peculiar living conditions there. But is it actually floating? Not really.
Venice’s geography
Venice was discovered and inhabited in the 5th century A.D. A mainland italic tribe which went by the name Veneti was seeking refuge while feeling from the barbarians after the Western Roman Empire had fallen. They had successfully inhabited these Mediterranean islands by the end of the 6th century A.D.
You heard it right! The city of Venice is actually an intricate network of 118 small islands which are linked together by using some 417 bridges and 150 crisscrossing canals.
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This is located in a large lagoon situated in Northeastern Italy. This was not an easy feat! Building such an intricate framework for housing in a lagoon is surely not easily achievable. How did the people of the Veneti do it then?
The ground had been incredibly sandy in this region which only made the task more difficult. So, the first step the Italians did was to build solid foundations for the city. They took huge wooden stakes and covered them with clay, mud, and very dense sand. The next step was to make wooden platforms on these stakes, and then, buildings were made on top of the platforms. Phew! That’s a lot of work.
But see. This was done way back in the 5th and 6th century A.D. when we didn’t even have the T of technology. And the platforms are still fine and functional!
Global Warming
Global warming is what causes climate change. And climate change is what blows up our chances of survival on this planet. This simple explanation does a good job at summing up what is wrong with both of these phenomena. But its repercussions are much more complex. I mean- who could have thought global warming would endanger thousands of animal species, our existence, and historically cultural places all at once?
We can define global warming as ‘the long-term heating of the earth’s surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere’. As NASA puts it, this term cannot be used interchangeably with the term ‘climate change’.
Both are different phenomena with different implications. But what’s common is that they mostly have negative effects and hardly any positive impact on anything in this world. One of the negative effects is the one faced by the beautiful city of Venice.
One meets the other
When Venice was being made, the builders surely wouldn’t have thought that their descendants would do anything to cause it harm. No one did it on purpose. Who would want to ruin such an important part of Italian heritage and history? But we did trigger the onset of global warming which has become a threat.
In recent reports and research analyses, it has been reported that the sea levels have been rising drastically because of the ice caps melting in the north and south poles. These are, in turn, melting because of the trapping of greenhouse gases in our planet’s atmosphere. These gases don’t let heat escape the atmosphere, hence, heating up our earth and melting the ice.
Many islands in the Pacific have already started demanding for some action to be taken soon. These are islands which will most likely become inhabitable by the end of this century. Some have already vanished. An example is that of the village Tebunginako which was part of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati.
The inhabitants recall how it was a thriving village once when suddenly, the tide started inching closer in the 1970s. The next years were tumultuous for the villagers- their village was submerged under water! They only have a church left which sits in the middle of the sea.
Will this happen to Venice too? Well yes, but also no. This can happen to Venice not just because of Global Warming but also because of extreme weather conditions, and subsidence (gradual sinking of an area of land). The pumping of groundwater for the purpose of industrialization is to be blamed for subsidence. But we have some good news.
According to research done to study the rate at which Venice might get submerged underwater, there should be huge acceleration in the rate of sea level rise. But from what scientists have observed, there has only been a rise of 3.75 millimeters in the relative sea level in the starting 15 years of this century! A lot of initiatives have also been introduced to work out the problems I listed above. This makes the chances of acceleration extremely low as we advance into the future.
This is great news for Venice! But that doesn’t make it alright for the hundreds of tiny islands which are at risk of drowning in the near future. What of the people who depend on the islands for their livelihood? How do we plan on helping them?
References
Venice’s geography
- A Brief History of Venice: Italy’s Floating City. (2020, July 28). Avventure Bellissime. https://www.tours-italy.com/blog/brief-history-venice-italys-floating-city
- Venice: Foundation Details of the Biggest Floating City in the World – The Constructor. (2020, November 5). The Constructor. https://theconstructor.org/case-study/venice-foundation-details/224185/
- Amilcar, M., Setalsingh, A., & Savonne Tassinari, M. (2010). Mobility in the Floating City. Venice Project Center Reports: Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Global Warming
- Nations, U. (2023). Causes and Effects of Climate Change | United Nations. United Nations; United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/causes-and-effects-climate-change
- Shaftel, H. (2023, September 27). Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. https://climate.nasa.gov/what-is-climate-change.amp
One meets the other
- Parker, A. & Ollier, C. (2015). Venice: Rising Water or Sinking Land? . Nonlinear Engineering, 4(3), 161-174. https://doi.org/10.1515/nleng-2015-0009
- TOPALOGLU, KAMILE IREM. (2023). The effect of global warming on Venice and measures to be taken against rising the water level. Polimi.it. http://hdl.handle.net/10589/154580
- Kausea Natano. (2022, September 28). The Climate Crisis Is Making the Pacific Islands Uninhabitable. Who Will Help Preserve Our Nations? TIME; Time. https://time.com/6217104/climate-crisis-pacific-islands-uninhabitable/
- Chow, D. (2019, June 9). Three islands disappeared in the past year. Is climate change to blame? NBC News; NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/three-islands-disappeared-past-year-climate-change-blame-ncna1015316
