In an ironic turn of events, politicians rejected a climate change proposal and within 2 minutes the legislative chamber was flooded with seawater. This is the first time in history that the Venice Regional Council building has ever flooded.
Currently, the city of Venice is in a state of emergency due to the extreme flooding. The water level rose over 6 feet of the normal sea level in Venice and has been estimated at over 100 million Euros in damages so far.
Venice Isn’t New To Flooding
It’s no secret that Venice is prone to flooding. In fact, it gets flooded around 100 times a year, and that number will continue to rise as the sea levels do too.
However, a unique problem that Venice is facing is not just the fact that the sea levels are rising, but the city is actually sinking. The city of Venice was actually built on top of a muddy lagoon.
This means that the city does not actually have a solid foundation. Thus, the city is actually sinking into the lagoon it was built on top of. This, by itself, would eventually bring the city underwater.
However, when you combine this with rising sea levels, it is expected for the city to be underwater by the end of the century.
Is Venice Savable?
Even if we curbed our greenhouse gas emissions overnight, Venice is sinking and will continue to be flooded. That is a fact.
With that said, we can slow down the process. Venice is already moving forward on flood barriers. They protect the city when high tides threaten, which will buy the city time to find other solutions.
But ultimately, Venice will become an underwater city at some point. What we can do now is slow down the process by keeping the global temperature low.
This will prevent the seas from rising, which buys the city decades to plan.
