Venice
Italy has begun building floodgates to stop the sea from swallowing Venice. The historic city sits on a soggy foundation and has been slowly sinking as sea levels rise. After decades of debate, officials decided to install 79 massive gates capable of sealing the three inlets into the lagoon around the city, to hold back high tides. The so-called Moses project will cost $4 billion. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that was a small price for preserving “the pride of Italy.” Environmentalists complained the project would wreck the lagoon’s fragile ecology, but they could not compete with activists fighting to save Venice. “There is no point in having a wonderful ecology if the city is four feet underwater,” said Anna Somers Cocks of the Venice in Peril Fund.
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