Venice Under Siege - Italy

March 1996
Fires, floods, pollution and depopulation all threaten Venice - Italy today. The picturesque sights of sun glinting on the waves, elegant villas and ornate bridges are rarely associated with oil spills, petrol refineries and other hazards that pollute the lagoon. Neither would tourists expect to see noisy diggers dredging up mud from the canal floor in an attempt to protect buildings from flood damage. More worrying is the possibility that Venice will turn into nothing more than a touristic showpiece. Local families are leaving Venice for an easier life on the mainland. Survivors like the Farinati family live in a city where there are no cars, no supermarkets and very few schools. Mr Farinati, who runs a glass restoration business, has to heave sheets of glass off a boat, along a wood plank and then through a window before he can start work. Tourists in Venice far outnumber the residents. Venetians are an endangered species and their survival depends upon finding a solution to the many problems.

Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Category:

News & Politics

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• Italy
• Water
• Floods
• fires
• pollution
• Hazards
• Journeyman
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• news
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[saharra22469]

So sad... I was in Venice in 1987. So much is changing. It breaks my heart. Venice was/is beautiful, romantic the most unique and wonderful place in all of the world.

I hope engineers and politicians can find a way to save it...after all...there is nothing like it in Britain.

[red46123]

Ya, like the British have room to talk mate. Why don't learn from your own history. Thats right, you chaps think you are so much the humanitarians except you have your own dark imperialistic history of destroying entire cultures. You condescending Brit, must Americans don't agree with the war. Check your facts before belligerently insult people.

[hymnofashes]

@edgarleemasters America's trade deficit, and the pressures of environmental destruction and dwindling oil supplies, are beginning to turn the screws on America's economy. Inequality is crippling our future. America will react to its diminishing significance by using the biggest tool in its toolbox: the military.

This video is sad. I want places like Venice to make new art and culture, not just preserve the past. I might try to live there.

[cannuckistan]

Italians are great at creating beautiful things like Venice, but they're just aweful at managing what they've created.

[OmegaWolf747]

That's horrific. I knew Venice was having problems with the rising water table, but not with all that pollution. Perhaps Venice will be a ghost town in 30 years. Very sad. :-(

[MrAMERICANfrenchy]

where is the full version

[pasqualejessica]

i love you so much jessica gallina oh please do an oxy right away thank you my love

[plaguemann]

People from Italy and Romania, should know to throw garbage in the trashcans

[ellin40]

Gone to the fishes, finally there is justice in this world!

[edgarleemasters]

Saharra, I must point out that BY NO MEANS I hate Americans. I just happen to note (and many others alike these days) that lately they (dare I say, you?) do not seem to be aware of the fact that there is a world outside their borders (or,as you are used to say, "overseas"), and that such world would better be understood and listened to to ensure everybody a better life, and a good way to start would be (for many Americans, which doesn't include you, I assume) to actually learn where the world is

[saharra22469]

OH honey......edgar....you are so judgemental that you have forced me to be the same with you...and condescending. At this point I refuse to assist you any further, or dignify your tunnel vision. I have travelled, still do, all over the world. I am married to a foreigner whose parents come from even another country than his birth country. My family hails from Europe too. You clearly have so much hatred for America and Americans that I can't help but wonder what is really eating you.

[edgarleemasters]

I see your point, but...it will be like asking the Queen of England to give the Koh-i-Noor back to the Indians or the Iranians the Peacock Trone again to the Indians or the Parisians many art masterpieces that are currently on display at the Louvre...theorically it iwould be fair but practically it is nearly impossible to be done