Venice In Our Hands - творческое исследование экологической проблемы Венеции.

VENICE IN OUR HANDS

Venice is the world famous city in Northern Italy in which gondolas replace cars. It is completely surrounded by the water. To understand this more let's look at the map of the city. The city itself is a set of islands located in the Venetian lagoon of the Adriatic Sea, the Grand Canal shares all the islands.

There are many famous monuments in the city itself, but today I want to draw your attention to only one of them. It is a well-known sculpture “Hands” made by Italian artists Lorenzo Quinn. It is fascinating not only for its beauty but also for its meaning. 

As everyone knows Venice will completely go down under the water in 100 years. It is a very serious problem for the city dwellers. Every year the Venetians are submerged by a centimeter, or even more. This monument highlights the threat of climate change. It is a call to start a serious struggle with climate change so that the hands of the sea do not take the city. 

To understand better the seriousness of these climate changes, I suggest looking at the next slide. This is San Marco Square during the day, and this is the same square in the nighttime. As you may notice, it is flooded every single day, and at the full moon or during the rainy season, it turns into a pool, because the water rises even above 1 meter.

The worst situation in the last few years was in October 2018. Due to heavy rains, the water level reached 156 centimeters, and the historical part of the city was flooded by 75%.

         My strong conviction is that the time has come to start fighting with climate change and save the city on the water. I chose four facts that will help save Venice:

1. Reduction in the number of large cruise liners entering the city center.
2. Investment by the government and private sponsors.
3. Public attention and charity events to raise money.
4. Mose 2.0

If everything is very clear with the first three points, the last one needs to be explained. The project Mose which was created in 1981 is an integrated system consisting of rows of mobile gates installed  that are able to isolate the Venetian Lagoon temporarily from the Adriatic Sea during acqua alta high tides. 5.4 billion euros have already been spent on its construction, and the launch date from 2014 has been shifted for an indefinite period, more than half of the gateways have not even been established. Because of the numerous errors in calculations, selection of chemicals for processing gateways, inability to cater for real conditions of life of the city, the project MOSE has become unusable. However, Mose 2.0 is an advanced project that can really help Venice.

Therefore, comes the question: “What needs to be changed to save Venice?”

        Here I am going to enumerate some effective measures for solving the problem.

1. As you know the level of the Adriatic Sea is constantly rising. No one knows if it will stop, so we need to increase the height of the dam by at least a meter so that it can hold back the water even during a storm.
2. It is necessary to change completely the chemical composition of lacquer, which covers the gateways, so that it can withstand the effects of mold and sea water. 
3. It is desirable to make a few test copies, which later will be tested at the sea. 

In my opinion, these 3 facts can help people to fix the project MOSE which will save Venice but I want to tell you the most important way to solve this problem. 

4. People should not forget about one of the most important ideas of their lives. To preserve the places of the world’s historic heritage for future generations is possible only if people combine their efforts. We can help each other. I want to attract the attention of world’s society with the help of my project and ask to lend a helping hand to Venice, because now this city needs it more than ever. Thank you for your attention!