PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK; DUNCAN CLARK, NORTHWEST PASSAGE PROJECT,
FUNDED BY THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AND THE HEISING-SIMONS FOUNDATION; JEFF DAI (PANORAMA COMPOSED OF FOUR IMAGES);
GIUSEPPE CACACE, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES; MIGUEL MEDINA, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGESPESSIMIST’S GUIDE (^) | WARNING SIGNS
Crabs release carbon
Salt marshes store millions of tons
of carbon, but burrowing fiddler
crabs may be letting it out. Their
tunnels create holes in soil that expose
carbon-releasing organic matter in
Brazil, Tanzania, and China. Research-
ers say other burrowing animals,
like clams and shrimp, may be doing
similar damage. —DANIEL STONE
EVERY YEAR, AND after almost
every rain, the headline is familiar.
Venice is flooding and sinking at the
same time, which leads to the same
wet result: more water filling the
1,200-year-old city’s streets at greater
frequency for longer periods. Venice
mayor Luigi Brugnaro says the city
“will shine again”—but can the island
possibly survive a warming world?
The sea level in Venice’s lagoon
is four inches higher than it was 50
years ago. The UN’s Intergovern-
mental Panel on Climate Change
expects that so-called hundred-year
floods will occur every six years by
2050 —and every five months by
- One such flood last November
left 70 percent of the city submerged.
The more urgent priority may
be saving Venice’s treasures and
artifacts. After November’s flood,
art experts and university students
visited damaged museums and
churches to move precious objects
to higher floors. In some cases, they
aimed to find the objects new homes
outside of Venice.
That’s only a stopgap until relief
arrives from the Italian government’s
long-awaited MOSE defense project
(also known as the Moses project),
which will use giant seawalls to seal
off the lagoon. Scheduled for com-
pletion in 2011, the project has been
delayed by cost overruns and dis-
putes. Officials now expect Moses to
start protecting Venice by 2022. —DSSEA RISEHISTORIC
FLOODING
IN VENICE
TOURISTS WERE
THE FIRST WAVE
TO HIT THE CITY.
THE SEA MAY
BE THE LAST—
AND MOST
DESTRUCTIVE.DISPATCHES
FROM THE FRONT LINES
OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY24