Campaign For A Living Venice

In early March 2017 word reached Venice that the Maritime Pines at Tessera were being cut down to make way for more parking. A petition was launched on Change.org and within 24 hours 1100 signatures were already registered, making the news in the local papers. As of this writing the signatures now number over 1500.

On Sunday March 12 member of a variety of groups, including Venicemyfuture, Ambiente Venezia, Italia Nostra-Venezia and Comitato No GrandiNavi met at Tessera among the pines with their families and friends. There they publicly protested the cutting and went one step better, planting new trees to replace those that had already been removed. The signs say, “Basta tagliare gli alberi per fare parcheggi” which means “Enough cutting trees to make parking spots”.

This video documents some of the event. At the beginning of the video two children are interviewed. After telling the interviewer that they know that the trees are being removed for parking, and that yes, they think it is wrong because the trees “have a right to live like all living things” and that without them “we may die for lack of air”, the interviewer asks them why it is they think that adults don’t understand. Their response: “because adults have no imagination – they only think of making money.”

They speak, as Venicemyfuture points out on their Facebook post of this video, “with the disarming force of truth.”