| nicfit |
02.01.2007 03:55 PM |
"In November 2002, the American PBS science program NOVA aired a program on "Sinking City of Venice". The program reminded us that the city of Venice, Italy has been slowly sinking for at least the last several centuries. The level of much of the city has now gotten to the point of being critical. If nothing is done, the city will certainly be totally destroyed by tides and storm waves within a few decades. The fact that global warming has also begun to melt the polar ice caps, which causes the sea level to also be rising, compounds the problems of their sinking city.
The city leaders have gotten to the point of being desperate for a solution. In recent years, they have begun pursuing an incredibly expensive and unusual project to try to preserve their city. The concept involves the installation of enormous movable steel "gates" under the waters of their lagoon. The idea is that, when high tides are coming in, these gates would be raised to block off the Mediterranean from their lagoon, much like the concept of the doors of a lock of a canal.
Their application is very different from that of a lock, and massive engineering has been proceeding for some time. By the time they expect to be able to start installing their gates, which they hopefully expect in around ten years, they will spend at least two to three billion euros. That approach has very serious potential problems, in addition to the enormous price tag. It still involves the city continuing to sink and the sea level rising due to global warming. Even if they pay for and install those gates, and even if they work as the promoters claim they will, few people expect them to have useful effect beyond two or three decades. At that point, Venice's problems will be even more severe, assuming it still exists, because it will be virtually entirely below the average sea level."
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