What’s wrong with this picture ?
This was snapped atop St. Marks Basilica; everyone stopped looking at the giant bronze horses and the nearby Venitian robot astrological timepiece, the square quieting noticeably and off we moved to stare at the building-size tourist colony float by…. The water displacement of something that large can’t be helping the cause of preserving the truly amazing place that is Venice Italy.
July 5, 2008 at 5:42 pm |
I’m not a scientist, so I could be totally wrong on this. But for water displacement to be damaging, wouldn’t it have to leave a fairly substantial wake? I lived on the Zattere in Venice, where the cruise ships went by my window every day. They are massive–they would fill up my entire window. But they go by very slowly and make barely a splash against the waterfront–largely because there are ordinances against that kind of thing. (For example, there is only one disco in Venice–and it’s soundproofed–because loud vibrations hurt the buildings. So the Venetians are somewhat hip to at least trying to protect their fragile city). I think the biggest threat to Venice is global warming and rising tides, not cruise ships–ugly and necessary evil that they are. But I could be wrong. Perhaps there is an incremental effect and the wake doesn’t have to be noticeable to be damaging. It’s an interesting idea–maybe I’ll look into it more. I’m going back in October–see what I can find out.
July 9, 2008 at 4:55 pm |
Hi Amy, thanks for the thoughts. I’m no official scientist either but I have read and seen a very detailed doc on the effects of boats and ships on Venice. Basically the impact of motorized boats on Venice has been profound. Cruise ships are amazing but they do displace unfathomable (yuk yuk, can’t resist) amounts of water. Unfortunately Venice is more like a museum than a living city, tourism runs every concern ultimately…