Big Cruise Liners Inundate the Venice Lagoon

Italy’s failure to apply EU directives is not only related to the garbage emergency in Naples. A recent article by Fulcro Pratesi, President of the environmental group Wwf Italy, makes a plea to save one of the most enchanting Italian cities from degradation. Summer is coming and big cruise liners are devastating the Venice lagoon creating a health hazard for residents.

Tourism has been part of the life of Venice for centuries; however, in the last years, the city has faced grave problems due to the tremendous volume of tourists each year. Residents say that whereas the centre of Venice was once full of shops selling ‘real things’ but now most shops sell souvenirs such as Merano glass and carnival masks.

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The passage of these ships through the lagoon damages Venice’s health, its environment and monumental heritage; these giants are totally out of proportion in regard to the city and its ecosystem. According to a dossier drawn up by the Citizens Coordinating Committee Against Big Ships and the Permanent NoMOSE assembly, the Venice lagoon “is being permanently devastated to satisfy the interests of a restricted lobby”, that of the cruise operators.This report was presented along with a petition signed by 1,645 residents of Venice asking that immediate action be taken.

Ships are also a source of air pollution, the dossier added, “caused by the use of fuels which have been outlawed by the European Union but which are still available here because of delays in adopting EU directives on a national level”. Nitric and sulphuric anhydrides are released in enormous quantity from the funnels that, unlike the exhaust pipes of land vehicles, are lacking in any system to filter the fumes.

Those particular fumes from the ships come from engines burning heavy oil: all this to mantain the  ‘industry of passengers’ (around 3000 in some single cruisers), collected by smaller engine boats and moved on these polluting means of transport. Big cruise liners are going to compromise the life and cultural heritage of Venice and the profits from these traffics induce the local people to own more and more pleasure boats with more and more powerful engines…

Veneto Internet Press

Permanent NoMose Assembly

Image courtesy of Spud at Flickr under creative Commons

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