When one speaks of Venice, most people think of Marco Polo, pizza, canals and gondolas, but few realize that this can all vanish in the next several decades. Rising sea levels are detrimental to the many islands that make up the city. Recently over the summer, Venice experienced the worst flooding in fifty years with almost ⅔ of the city flooded. A specific example of the flooding is the great Church of San Marco which has experienced 6 floods since it’s construction 1200 years, four of which have been in the past 20 years. Prep student Cocoro Kudo ‘23 agrees and states“The torrent of water flowing into monuments like the famous St. Marks cathedral is a sign of the detrimental effects to come.” These floods are only a small taste of the environmental impact human advancements have had on this beautiful coastal city. However, most of these problems are unknown to the public. When Prep’s students were polled about the environmental effects on Venice many had a similar response to Liam Bell ‘22

“Well, I just know of the recent massive flooding that caused tourism to go down, is Venice sinking?” Hudson Parent ‘22 also had a similar reaction, “I’ve never even been to Venice, let alone hear about the water rising.” There are many people similar to Bell and Parent who have little hint of the greater environmental problems that affect Venice and many other coastal cities. One of the other problems caused by human society is the eroding structural support that supports Venice. With all the massive cruise ships that pass nearby, the larger waves actually chip away at the stone foundation of the city. This problem would be partially solved after a cruise ship accidentally crashed into a dock in June of 2019. This incident lead to the ban of all large cruise ships in the area, and for the routes to be diverted to nearby Fusinia and Lombardia terminals as the ships eroded the support and caused flooding due to the waves. But even with this ban, the damage has been done. The continued effects of global warming and human incidents is making the city sink into chaos. As the flooding and erosion increases, some fear that the Queen of the Adriatic, is finally going down.