Venice and its New Seawall

Here's the link, outside of the paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/world/europe/venice-mose-flooding.html?unlocked_article_code=i6kDTPRYt0IZF59GzfAXGMqzIMcfXLqnRNKbIoS8kKX4TpPGAry2eercoHIbKv_rfpPoVyory-02zEWRcgQON1x8sltgtQP0tVhY0k0cj_FelAd2_etqdchIY4yWOWiuq8FPUUsWQct9oSrwh5xRn2xZbpssCBIqfx4uvrf2EMedY6BuhJyfaAwl_CC_f4zlowbJShtvmO8xNehUfjmBZJrmLdyCUF-q-vXVYx9xYV3TMOZlZszOAxqNIKnX5-SgmVPuNVXCQcl6CikAksnYxLReGjJr005C22ZMSeoUkJDKvoxR-yEwH7tD4pPtfv1c6xNoG5BsMysPWHehqyIuyP29&smid=url-share

Thanks , Scudder , I kept getting a rejection here ( This site )

Thank you

A very strange article. It wants to make the statement that climate change has altered the sea level in Venice, yet then goes on to explain why the city SANK from subsurface water being extracted from the 50's to the 70's. And damage to to local lagoon due to cruise ships and pollution that killed some of the sea weed that held the outer banks in place. And what the article doesn't talk about is how the rivers that flow to the lagoon are now built up so there isn't any flooding on the main land, so they dump in to the lagoon at full force if there is a major rain fall. . . Which is it? Climate Change, or a whole bunch of bad decisions that are adding up? MOSE will not solve this. Its barely been in operation and its failing spectacularly. Seems there were hinge bolts that shouldn't have been used and steel used to make the gates was substandard. Seems that invasive and native sea life are messing up all the pumping systems. On out going tides, there are hundreds, of old sunk boats, lost fishing nets, and other junk in the lagoon, that wedge in to the sections. Here is an article written by a local organization that paints a very different picture of how useful MOSE is, and the on going controversy of who is going to be responsible for repairs and future maintenance. Venice, the island city, has a residential population of only 60 thousand, and that number is dropping. Greater Veneto, Pop, 260 thousand, are really not troubled by high water. Imagine being a resident and getting stuck with the maintenance costs. Or even just being a mainland Italian, and wondering why am I paying for this? Italy was "unified" in the late 1800's, but my take, is that most Italians.... deep down, still don't see themselves as part of a larger unity of city states.

I'm seriously thinking that this whole project is going to be scrapped in ten years. UNESCO isn't going to pick up the tab. :)

https://campaignforalivingvenice.org/2017/10/11/mose-the-history-of-a-failure-an-anthology-of-horrors/

To be quite honest, Italy can't "afford" to lose Venice. Not because of any cultural or historical significance, but because of tourist dollars. They will continue to do what they can to keep it online, even as its population dwindles. Eventually it will turn into the theme park it's always threatened to become.

I thought the story was unintentionally funny, the way the project almost died because of graft and then the times where everyone's hand was hovering over the "up" button but no one could give the command.