MILAN -- Cruise industry officials long insisted that ship accidents wouldn't happen in Venice's busy Giudecca Canal, saying guiding tugboats and technology ensured safety.
“All of these logistical issues count for nothing when you have the existential question of does the planet still want to have Venice or not,” said environmental scientist Jane da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice, an activist group that opposes ship traffic in Venice. Despite the debate that has raged in Venice over the regular passage of the behemoths, the historic city remains one of the world's top ports of call for cruise ships, with twice the traffic of any other Adriatic port.
Venice environmentalists have long complained that cruise ships displace water, wear down fragile foundations, cause air pollution and damage the delicate lagoon environment by dredging up the muddy bottom. Da Mosto said the Marghera solution has a fundamental issue, that the route is used by industrial and commercial traffic, and a government directive prohibits mixing passenger traffic with “potentially explosive industrial traffic.”