One crazy thing that happened while we were in Venice was an acqua alta event. This is when the tide gets so high it floods the city, which is built right on sea level (those famous canals are seawater, not fresh).
These tides used to happen (for a bunch of reasons) about ten times a year in the fall/winter. Now, thanks to sea level rise and more severe weather due to global warming (among other things) they can happen up to 60 times a year, any season. (Florida has something similar called "sunny day flooding").
We thought we'd be swimming for our scheduled "ghost walk" that night! But the forecast was so dire the government decided to deploy the MOSE ("Moses"), a newly-competed series of sea gates that literally parts the water around Venice and prevents severe flooding. So we got rain-wet, but didn't have to wade!
A few days later, they apparently decided NOT to deploy the MOSE, because here's what happened: https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/see-tourists-wade-venices-flooded-161510835.html
The locals we talked to were concerned about climate change and sea level rise. Business owners have removable "dams" installed in their doors. Residents are rebelling against the city's ban on window air conditioning. Homeowners are raising the levels of their canal ports. Our gondolier pointed at the green algae line on the side of the canal, noting it used to be a lot lower. "We're out here every day. We know what's going on."
Our awesome Airbnb host Sara Tirelli turned out to be an artist and filmmaker who made a movie about climate change and the acqua alta in Venice. Check it out here: https://www.saratirelli.com/HYDRA-MONO
It took 5.5 billion Euros and 18 years, but the MOSE seems to be helping Venice for now, at least sometimes. The bad news is that when sea levels rise as much as scientists say they could, even the MOSE won't be able to save this 1600-year-old city.
It's just a matter of how long it takes to get there...the less we use fossil fuels, the more time we can buy to adapt to our earth's changes.
With the recent COP26 summit happening, warming is on our polititions' minds (or should be). Tell them it's on yours too:
Pictured: buildings almost floating on the surface of the sea; climate graffiti; canal doors under reconstruction; walkways set up for tourists to walk on during floods; a huge line of yellow gates stretching between ocean islands.
https://earth.org/data_visualization/sea-level-rise-by-the-end-of-the-century-venice/
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