What is happening to Italy?

Climate change has affected millions of people worldwide through air pollution suffocating some of the worlds highest income cities to typhoons that demolish lower income countries and their villages. No matter where, global warming doesn't discriminate but instead is a result of us as people dumping toxic waste into our rivers and our vigorous use of automobiles without a care or thought of the consequence. I've chosen to study the city of Venice in Italy and how climate change has affected and damaged the city.

The city of Venice is made up of more than 100 islands inside a lagoon that is of the north east coast of italy. It's historically fundamental architecture and culture makes it a huge hotspot for tourists who visit to catch a glimpse of St Mark's Basilica, to cross Rialto’s Bridge and ride down the grand canal. However this puts great stress towards the city's environment as sea levels begin to rise and the city itself sinks (at least 5 inches over the past century) . Venice is prone to floods and has suddenly spiked in rate over the past twenty years, although rising sea-levels is a new challenge.

During november 2019 venice faced one of it's highest water levels in the region in more than 50 years and would leave "a permanent mark", Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.The waters in Venice reached its peak at (6ft), according to the tide monitoring centre. Only once since official records began in 1923 has the tide been higher, reaching 1.94m in 1966. The popular tourist sites which were hit by the floods left tourists wading through the water during the storm.

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There were a few casualties to the flooding as Two people died on the island of Pellestrina, a thin strip of land that separates the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. A man was electrocuted as he tried to start a pump in his home, and a second person was found dead elsewhere.But hundreds of business owners found their business’ in ruins and thousands of people found there homes flooded, devastating the lives of those who couldn't afford repairs.

This was mostly caused due to the country's ignorance to climate change as ironically enough the Venice council offices were flooded moments after rejecting an climate change plan.(if this isnt the universe telling them to go drown themselves and let the vegans be in charge then idk what is).

Tackling climate change

What is the greenhouse effect? It's a proccess in which gasses in the atmosphere that trap the sun's radiation within our atmosphere leading to the heating of the world's temperature above what it should be. This causes a range of dangerous environmental disasters that may have either increased in rate or increased in impact. Humans either knowingly or unknowingly (those who are uneducated(donald trump)/living in third world countries) speed up the process of the greenhouse effect, through burning fossil fuels which leads from air pollution too large scale cattle ranching and deforestation.

Socially one effect of climate change is a decrease of food availability in some regions of the world. Places with extreme droughts struggle to farm for sustenance leaving them starving and dehydrated, this is usually the case in rural areas in low income countries. Although on the opposite end of the spectrum in higher income countries like Italy, who have urban cities like Venice experiencing floods that destroy homes and wreck business’ which causes a depletion of tourism lowering the economy of that region as a multiplier effect. Another effect of climate change is environmentally, venice's waters have become murky and polluted were hardly any fish is seen in the water anymore, skies are grey and reservoirs are polluted by runoff from farms not only killing the fish but the ecosystem around it and fertilisers cause eutrophication.

Ways in which countries around the world could tackle flooding is through planting trees. Planting trees help in two ways ; one they stop water from coming in excess as it takes water up through the roots in order to survive and performs photosynthesis, two photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide ( a green house gas that traps the heats radiation during the green house effect) and releases oxygen which clears the air. Another way is by switching from fossil fuels to power cities to wind and solar energy, people should opt out of traveling by car and switch to foot or public transport, they should also try traveling by train rather than planes.People in urban areas could create local communities that would help tackle small local problems and try getting local primary schools involved. Governments should try putting stricter laws and regulations on the amount of waste being produced in farms.

Can we reduce climate change drastically

Yes definitely, although this may sound dark but it's the honest truth,due to the coronavirus lockdown emissions all over the world have dropped drastically. NASA experts say that the grey cloud over china has disappeared. And In Venice, the often murky canals recently began to get clearer, with fish visible in the water below. Italy's efforts to limit the coronavirus meant an absence of boat traffic on the city's famous waterways. Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere over Italy also fell precipitously, as they did in China. An analysis by The Washington Post found that the most dramatic drop was observed over northern Italy.

Although grim, it's something scientists said could offer tough lessons for how to prepare — and ideally avoid — the most destructive impacts of climate change.