By Elias Marat | The Mind Unleashed
The continued outbreak of the coronavirus has been an enormously disruptive and tragic event, with massive humanitarian and economic repercussions for the entire world.
However, there have also been some surprising and not entirely unwelcome side effects.
Case in point: the canals of Venice, Italy, which are normally teeming with tourists all year round, with many flocking to the famous gondola boats that traverse the city’s iconic canals.
The Venetian canals are famously unclean. Filled with brackish water – a mixture of saltwater and fresh water – as well as a decidedly funky mixture of pollution, including human waste and boat chemicals, the canals typically appear clean only after the local government clears it of litter and other debris.
However, as Italy continues to be under a nationwide lockdown affecting some 60 million residents, locals in Venice are beginning to notice that the canals have become far clearer – so much so that people are being treated to the rare sight of little fish swimming through the now-transparent waters of the city’s 150 canals.
People have begun uploading images of the city’s canals to a Twitter account called Venezia Pulita (Clean Venice), expressing their sense of awe at the sudden return of wildlife to a city that has long struggled with pollution. Similar images have also been uploaded to Twitter.
✅ Acqua pulita a #Venezia con i pesci 🐠 che si tornano a vedere
✅ Un cigno 🦢 sul Naviglio a #Milano
✅ un delfino 🐬 nel porto di #CagliariTornare a inquinare sarebbe un delitto: sfruttiamo questa scia per ripensare a come sviluppare la società in armonia con la natura pic.twitter.com/dH0PLqm4Q1
— Roberto Dupplicato (@duppli) March 16, 2020
In one post, user Marco Capovilla wrote:
“Incredible images of the Rio dei Ferali, behind San Marco square, usually murky. Nature takes back its spaces.”
