Some time ago (it was 2021) we wrote about the Lombard Riviera, the Padano Sea, the Lugana Lagoon: science fiction but not too much, they were the new toponyms resulting from a hypothetical rise of the seas up to over 60 meters, this due to the melting of the ice caps polar (in turn caused by global warming) as prophesied in the book “Journey through Anthropocene Italy” written by Telmo Pievani and Mauro Varotti. A dystopian future has become forcefully back in the news in recent weeks in the face of new studies, which concern not only Italy, but the whole world.
The situation in Italy
“The relative sea level along the coast of the United States – writes the National Geographic – has already risen by about 30 cm and could increase to almost 2 meters by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are not significantly reduced.” In Italy, he writes instead Republic“sea level is rising at three times the speed of estimates made up to 2023”: this is reported by a study by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the University of Rabdoud, according to which “over 38,500 square kilometers of coastline will be soon at risk of flooding due to this phenomenon.”
The flood map
Beyond the catastrophic rise of 60 metres, with the sea effectively submerging a large part of the Po Valley, including the cities of Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua and Cremona in Lombardy, arriving a few steps from Lake Garda and the province of Brescia, even just one extra meter would be enough to unleash hydrogeological chaos. This was revealed by FloodMap, the interactive portal where it is possible to see on a map the expansion of water on the mainland based on a precise rise: already with 1 meter more water, the entire Venetian coast (and beyond) would end up submerged, up to Rovigo and at the gates of Ferrara, not far from Padua and Treviso. With a rise of 2 meters, the sea would also submerge part of Emilia Romagna, approaching Bologna. The Mediterranean Sea would be increasingly closer to the Po Valley, Lombardy and Brescia.
The risk of a water apocalypse
A serious problem. “In the Florida Keys, an archipelago of low islands south of Miami – writes National Geographic – it is estimated that almost half of the roads in the dispute will be at least occasionally impassable in less than 25 years. Even some areas of New York are threatened by a rise that experts define as the fastest in the last 1,500 years.” And again: “Rising seas are also important on a global level, as countries like Bangladesh and the Netherlands risk a death sentence. According to the United Nations, if the current trend is not changed, the water will infiltrate vast territorial areas.” Water apocalypse.
