10.000 firme in 11 ore, oggi! 10,000 more signatures in 11 hours, today, after our press release:
http://www.change.org/p/stop-the-plan-to-dredge-the-maxi-canal-contorta-in-venice-before-it-s-too-late
There is only one Lagoon we call Home. Help us saving our Lagoon.
Nous n’avons que cette lagune, qui est notre maison. Aidez-nous à la sauver.
Nur eine Lagune nennen wir “Zuhause”. – Helft uns, sie zu retten.
We are a group of 200 venetians, “native” and not. Whoever truly loves Venice is welcome here, irrespective of nationality and religion: this has always been the secret of Venice, since the middle age: its capacity to attract the best energies from all over the Mediterranean Sea.
Why are we launching this call, and why in English, too? Venice already has the status of “world heritage” but this cannot be interpreted as a mere duty to protect its stones: due to its unique environment, Venice is a pearl which can only be saved if we protect its shell, that is our lagoon. On 8 August, to accommodate the needs of ever bigger cruise ships (140,000 tonnes, compared to the 40 tonnes of our “vaporetti”), the national Government announced its intention to dredge a new deeper and larger canal, that would threaten our lagoon and its wetlands, as well as two of our smaller islands.
How to define a “venetian”? It is not an issue of identity card but of lifestyle, and a choice of life. Small is beautiful, in Venice, because the space is limited and our lifestyle is unique: no cars in the streets, no elevators in our buildings; no motorways no subway and we can still feel the four seasons on our skin, when we go out for shopping. This is unattractive for many people, and exciting for others, such as the 16,000 foreigners (“foresti”) who made the choice of buying a property in the lagoon. We need their help, now, and yours too.
Water is our home, water was our “wall” and protected us against many threats in times of troubles, as long as this was a City State (until 1797); it is also for this reason that, over the centuries, the Venice Republic used to cherish the lagoon and was able to preserve it with an amazing (and very effective) body of “environmental legislation” when such word was not yet created.
The rich and the poor always lived close to each other, in Venice: no need to build a castle or a fortress to protect the Duke (Doge) because the city was able to stand united and united we stand today, that the lagoon is threatened. United we stand, but we need your help. Why?
Venice has lost many of its native residents, over the past 60 years, due to the cost of living: this city is so charming and so successfully attractive as a tourist destination that prices have rocketed to sky and most jobs available by now are those related to the one industry of mass tourism, which are not remunerated enough to afford living in the houses where our parents and grandparents used to live. We have lost 100,000 residents, in just 60 years, and the venetians still living in the lagoon are only 85,000 (foreigners included). United we stand, but we need your help. Sign our petition, if you share our concerns:
- How to sign the petition?
http://www.change.org/p/stop-the-plan-to-dredge-the-maxi-canal-contorta-in-venice-before-it-s-too-late
2. Where to find the list of the first signers?
https://gruppo25aprile.org/2014/08/14/7-settembre-obiettivo-700-firme/
THE PETITION
TO:
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
Joint Committee for Safeguarding Venice
Stop the plan to dredge the maxi-canal Contorta, before it’s too late!
The construction of the new navigation channel “Contorta” would bring the main industrial and commercial channel, “canale dei petroli”, into the heart of the city of Venice. This would reduce the lagoon’s natural defences and subject it to the combined pressures of water masses arriving from the lido and malamocco inlets, which are the two largest sea-mouths between the adriatic and the lagoon. The consequences would be irreversible(and include more frequent flooding of Venice and more rapid decay of the urban fabric, along with impacts on the lagoon biodiversity and resilience). We are against dredging the Contorta canal because it would be damaging to Venice and the lagoon. We therefore request that the plan is immediately withdrawn while all the available alternatives for managing cruise traffic in Venice are considered and compared.
We express, last but not least, the conviction that it must be the City of Venice to decide on a question that so directly concerns its future, and that city representatives are no longer treated like undesired onlookers!
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Our Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/271896219684184/
Our Internet page:
https://gruppo25aprile.org/
On Twitter: #LAGOONCALLING and #DURIIBANCHI
@25aprileVenezia
Number of venetians still living in the lagoon: https://gruppo25aprile.org/quanti-siamo/
On the risks of dredging the Contorta Canal, a first reaction from Cambridge:
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Cambridge-scientist-challenges-the-Italian-government-to-show-that-the-cruise-ship-solution-is-safe/33435
and a short article signed Jane Da Mosto: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/New-route-for-Venice-cruise-ships-would-damage-the-lagoon/33434
Gruppo 25 aprile 