Gondola trips are a traditional part of visiting Venice for those who can afford the steep tourist prices, but I went a little off-script on a recent visit and chose a different, but equally iconic, vessel. We Are Here Venice, an NGO that promotes the safeguarding of a city deeply affected by climate breakdown and countless human-made activities, invited me on board the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior, the purpose of whose visit was anything but touristic.
Venice is sinking, the sea isn’t rising, you stupid old bat.
It’s pretty obvious that Venice is affected by human-made activities as it’s human-made
A city deeply affected by countless human activities? Like being built and lived in by humans perhaps?
And anyway, whose stupid idea was it to build this huge city there in the first place ?
Who granted it plannng permission?
The sign certainly looks as though it was made from fossil fuel. Her clothing would have been grown, woven and made by fossil fuel. The Rainbow Warrior that she travelled on has a fossil fuel engine as a ‘back up’. The concrete and metal that made the pier she’s standing on would certainly have been made by fossil fuel.
No doubt she feels that we should go back to Roman times, when all rough, hard, manual work was done by slaves. White of course since it’d be racist if they were black. The blacks would naturally be the Mamelukes to keep the rest of us in line.
And she would be one of the aristocrats, who it is our Gaia-given duty to pamper.
Venice should be cancelled for the part it played in the slave trade.
Where’s the DGSE when you need them…..
(PS Please don’t kill anyone this time.)
I always remember this “activist” (I prefer “moaner” as that more accurately describes her “activities” to mitigate GLOBAL WARMING) for explaining that she didn’t want to fly in jets but sometimes she “simply had to have breakfast in California before having dinner in Paris”.
Ahh, but Greta still loves her, so the impending Armageddon will have some consolation.
This article is not open for comments. What a surprise!
I was mildly amused that my search (duck duck go) for “Emma Thompson UN Ambassador” came up with the junior moaner Emma Watson.
Yet another example of a middle-aged women being replaced by a younger model.
Of course she flew there. Her time is far too valuable for anything else.
I’m not sure if it’s the monumental hypocrisy or the towering sense of entitlement that makes me hate her more.
BiND.
Isn’t that a bit racist. I thought most of the people the Venetians enslaved were white?
Due to global warming children in Venice won’t know what a Cornetto is.
“The Rainbow Warrior that she travelled on has a fossil fuel engine as a ‘back up’”
Which (depending on who you believe) is either a V12 Caterpillar of 1910bhp or a V16 Volvo Penta, of 1850bhp. Not quite what the terms “Back Up” or “Auxiliary” might lead you to assume! I’m sure I read elsewhere that it also has a 300bhp (or thereabouts) diesel genset. And it carries 24,000 gallons of diesel to power these “climate destroying” power sources…
Perhaps her next trip will be by tumbril. Perish the thought.
@dave ward details are here- https://www.ship-technology.com/projects/rainbow-warrior/ . seems to carry a lot of diesel 110,000 litres for backup only. It’s also built from steel and aluminium, which obviously was made without any input from any power source at all (lol)
Fossil fuel industries have unique access to mainstream media via advertisements, shaping narratives of media reports and exerting political influence in countries like Australia and the US.
I don’t know about Oz or the US, but in the UK the ‘fossil fuel’ companies do nothing but shout about how green they are (“Beyond Petroleum”). She clearly inhabits some alternate reality, let’s call it “Guardian world”.
@Ottokring – “whose stupid idea was it to build this huge city there in the first place ?”
Long dead people, who, if they had been asked about it, would probably have been perfectly happy for the city to gradually sink into the sea on the grounds that it’s still great value considering how long it has lasted – many hundreds of years.
For most of human history, singers, actors and other entertainers were seen as disreputable malcontents more analogous to “carnies” then the new aristocracy we’ve made them. You allowed them into town so they could put on their show, then drove them out before they could sully your daughters or steal your chickens.
‘”The ship has the capacity to carry and launch inflatable boats in tough weather conditions. It also has a helicopter landing facility. The oceanic vessel is equipped with the latest in electronic navigation, sailing and communications equipment.
The ship was built to meet strict environmental demands”
They have wind-powered helicopters????
The tale I heard Charles, was that Venice was founded by refugees from the barbarian invasions.
Thus the fact that it was on an unstable mudbank was the reason that the Goths and other asylum seekers weren’t interested.
Bogan – FATHER: “Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show ’em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one… stayed up! And that’s what you’re gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands”.
I wonder if the refugees had a couple of stabs at it before building what we have today?
It wasn’t that it was on an unstable mudbank — it has proved over 1,500 years that it is a pretty stable spot. It just is a place that it is very easy to defend. The Goths and Vandals had no navy, so the refugees were safe.
Ravenna, which was behind marshes at the time, acted the same way.
Others hid out in Swiss valleys, Croatian islands etc.
Venice’s fame is because it won the naval competition, beating Genoa, Lucca, Pisa, Zadar, Catania etc. So they became fabulously wealthy.
It could easily have been Chioggia — which almost no-one has heard of — but is very Venice like.
Thanks Chester.