Our Trees Project: 2020

Reflections

of an

Environmentalist

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE CROWDS IN VENICE

HIGH TIDE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION

THE POWER OF NATURE

OUR NEW LIVES STYLES

THE NEW POLLUTION

THE PRESENT WE ARE LIVING

WHAT IF THE ENVIRONMENT COULD EXPRESS ITS OPINION ABOUT THE COVID LOCKDOWNS?

Nowadays there are more and more articles out there on the web describing from many different points of views these forced isolations we are living in this 2020, but what would be the opinion of the natural environment if it could express itself?

Since March, we’ve been bombarded by terrifying news about this super dangerous Covid-19, and we are now all aware now that there is so much more involved with this virus. Not only our lives are put on stand-by for months on end for health and safety reasons, but also the environment where we are living on is put on a struggle for our needs of protection.

Are all these closures, limitations and protective measurements that we put in place, do they benefit the natural environment at all?

I have considered the city of Venice for this short case study.

THE CROWDS IN VENICE

It was happening for years and various journalists wrote articles about it, but I would like to mention the ‘Traveller’ website that in April 2019 reported how the city center of Venice was assaulted by cruise boats delivering thousands of tourists daily and how local residents suffer this situation. Despite local residents and activists had denounced the exploitation of the city for years, nothing really has changed. {Ref.1}

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As a consequence, the tiny streets and squares resulted in overcrowded. The below images refer to normal days in Venice when cruises were delivering thousands of visitors in the city.

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Not even high tides could have stopped this invasion of people that tidily queued on platforms to reach their destination.

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Everyone that had the chance to visit Venice knows that at times it was enough just to step out of the most popular areas, to encounter amounts of rubbish left untreated that stunk terribly. It was the obvious result of all these visitors enjoying their time visiting museums, eating, drinking and using local facilities.

HIGH TIDE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION

What happens to this garbage when the tourists leave?

Most of the time, locals aim to recycle or dismantle them but it also happened that high tide washed them away, into the sea. In fact, on bad weather days, it was not unusual to see rubbish floating in front of the historical buildings of the city. As result, the pollution of the city of Venice reached ridiculous levels. Here are some images that show the litter issue.

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After decades of attempts, it now seems that the Mose is finally working properly and protects Venice from these high tide events and as consequence by the water pollution too. In fact, in October 2020 the Mose’s Project has been finalized and it could be the solution to the problem of the “acqua alta a Venezia”. {Ref. 2}.

THE POWER OF NATURE

Back in March 2020, when the lockdown in Italy took place, magically Venice regenerated itself: the waters cleaned themselves fm rubbish and ferry’s oil, and it was possible to see ducks walking on the decks of the lagune.

This happened just because tourism was removed from the Veneto capital for a few weeks, how amazing!!!

Please see the post in my blog of the 1st April: 2020 ‘I am back’. {Ref.3}.

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OUR NEW LIVES STYLES

Since the lockdown ended, we are trying to have our lives back and hard approaching a new way of living, using masks and protecting health with the use of face masks. The issue we are facing now concerns the number of protective equipment we have to get rid of daily.

In Italy for instance, it is estimated that since the beginning of the school year, students are required to use something like 11 millions of masks daily: did anyone wonder how they will be disposed of? {Ref. 4}.

No one said it, no one thought about it yet, as reported by ‘theconversation.com’ {Ref. 5}.

Discarded plastic waste in a grassy area, including plastic gloves and face masks. Image 9

A face mask floating underwater at sea. Image 10

And the more we go on, the more things worsen.

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THE NEW POLLUTION

This new pollution is already on our shores. Numerous people are collecting single-use masks and plastic gloves from oceans or rescuing animals being stuck in one of them.

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There are more and more testimonials highlighting the environmental disaster we are causing, among all the BBC.

The following link to the video broadcasted online from BBC in July 2020, explains very well what it is going on and I invite every single one of you to have a look at it and think: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-53287940 {Ref. 6}

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THE PRESENT WE ARE LIVING

To conclude, I just want to add some photos I took myself. It is enough just to walk in the area where I am living to find single-use masks and plastic gloves all over the places and it did not take me a big effort nor many hours to put together this shameful collection.

What do you think?

Should we try to invert this trend or softly kill ourselves?