|
"Venice is in trouble," writes John Keahey. The city
is sinking into the sea. It has lost six feet over the last millennium
and soon will lose more. The problem has become so bad that hotel concierges
routinely distribute rubber boots to guests, and tourists cross historic
squares on elevated boardwalks. Long-time residents flee not only the
rising water, but also the rising cost-of- living and the rising industrial
pollution.
Venice, according to Keahey, "is evolving into a crumbling
museum." Once, of course, it was an economic powerhouse with global reach;
later it became the repository of some of the finest art and architecture
in the world. Now it's sinking, largely due to the remorseless facts of
geography, but also because the city's residents have abused their underground
water resources.
In Venice Against the Sea, Keahey offers a detailed
description of what's gone wrong--and explores how the city might be saved,
at least temporarily, through innovative engineering. This is a book anybody
who has fallen in love with Venice will want to read, yet it issues a
stark warning for people in coastal cities all over the world. If sea
levels continue to rise, Venice's bleak fate may also be their own.
--
John Miller/Amazon.com, Jan. 2002
|