A gondola crosses Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it on Sunday. AP
A gondola crosses Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it on Sunday. AP
A ride on a gondola through Venice’s Grand Canal is on every tourist’s bucket list. However, on Sunday that wasn’t the case when a stretch of it turned fluorescent green, prompting authorities to launch an investigation.
“This morning a patch of phosphorescent green liquid appeared in the Grand Canal of Venice, reported by some residents near the Rialto Bridge. The prefect has called an urgent meeting with the police to investigate the origin of the liquid,” Veneto regional president Luca Zaia wrote on Twitter.
Are aliens to blame for the colour change in the Grand Canal? Or is it the doing of environmental activists? We probe deeper and find out the reason behind the green colouring.
Gone Green
The green glob was first spotted around 9:30 am CET (1 pm IST) on Sunday and it grew slowly. It was first noticed near the famous Rialto Bridge by locals and multiple images shared on various social media platforms showed gondolas, water taxis and water bus boats skimming through the emerald substance.
Shortly after the appearance of the glob, the Italian fire service said it was helping the regional environmental protection agency take samples for testing. Also, the region’s president Luca Zaia called for an urgent meeting with the police to investigate the matter. “The prefect has convened an urgent meeting with the police force to investigate the origin of the liquid,” he was quoted as saying by local media.
ARPAV, Veneto’s regional environmental protection agency, said it received samples of the altered waters and was working to identify the substance that changed their colour.
While investigations are on as to what caused the water in the Grand Canal to turn green, there are several theories circulating with many blaming it on environmental activists. In recent times, eco-warriors have been making headlines for their protests; last weekend, activists from the climate group called Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) climbed into the famous Trevi fountain in Rome and poured diluted charcoal into the water to turn it black.
In fact, city councilman Andrea Pegoraro immediately blamed environmental activists for the green colouring of the canal. When Ultima Generazione was asked if they were behind the colouring of the water, they told CNN, “It wasn’t us.”
Besides conspiracies of it being the work of eco-warriors, some suspected that it could be algae growing on the surface of the water – similar to the harmful ‘red tide’ appearing closer to Florida’s beaches in the United States.
Also see: Venice’s famous gondolas grounded as low tides turn canals into muddy mess
However, unlike Florida, Italian authorities have said that the water is no threat to residents as of now.
Not the first time
The incident is reminiscent of a 1968 stunt pulled off by Argentine artist Nicolás García Uriburu. He had coloured the water with a fluorescent dye during the 34th Venice Biennale – a cultural exhibition – in a stunt to promote ecological awareness. Uriburu, who died in 2016, carried out other acts of protest to raise awareness. Between 1968 and 1970, he repeated the water colouring in New York’s East River, Paris’s Le Seine and Buenos Aires.
When other water bodies changed colour
The Venice Grand Canal isn’t the only water body that has changed colour.
In 2020, the colour of water in Maharashtra’s Lonar Lake changed to pink with experts attributing it to the salinity and presence of algae in the water body. While the incident stumped many and led to some arriving at the spot to gawk at the colour change, it turned back to its green colour in around two weeks.
Also, a research paper has revealed that a third of US rivers have significantly changed colour over the last 36 years, turning from blue to yellow and green. Researchers analysed 235,000 satellite images — taken over a 34-year period between 1984 and 2018 — from NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat program.
More than half of those satellite images showed rivers with a dominant hue of yellow, while more than a third of images were mostly green. Just 8 per cent of river images were mostly blue.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.