 |  Interactions Access Writing, 4/e Pamela Hartmann,
Los Angeles Unified School District
James Mentel,
Los Angeles Unified School District
Venice| Narrator: For centuries, Venetians have lived on the water. The rise and fall of the Adriatic Sea feeds the city's almost two hundred winding canals. But after years of neglect, environmentalists, locals, and even tourists agree: Venice is aging disgracefully.Tourists: We've definitely noticed the water. Yeah the water is really bad...gross and polluted.Italian man: The fact that the canals have been [unintelligible] makes the town ill.Narrator: Once the dumping ground for the city's sewage, the waterways were drained and cleaned every decade. But thirty years have passed since the last scrubbing, and polluted water is just one of Venice's problems. Frequent flooding, air pollution, and the torrent of six million tourists a year are all taking a toll on this Italian treasure.Guthrie: I think the sooner the Venetians face up to the fact that this is more of a museum than anything else and they should charge a toll at the gates, the sooner they'll be that much better off.Narrator: Part time resident Bob Guthrie is an American bent on restoring the city. He leads an international group called Save Venice.Guthrie: They pumped the water out of the substructure after the war to feed all the industries on the mainland, and the city sank about a foot.Narrator: As the city sinks lower, high tide flooding is more frequent and more damaging. Corrosive salt water is crumbling centuries-old architecture. And with the Italian government itself in troubled waters, much-needed tax dollars have not flowed toward helping the city's environmental problems. Until that happens, the work will remain in the hands of individuals who feel Venice is worth saving. |
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education