Excerpt:
Canaletto’s paintings of Venice portray an apparently timeless city. But look a little closer, and all is not as it seems
For 150 years, tide gauges have recorded the sea level around the city of Venice.
These careful, consistent measurements help Venetians understand the risk of flooding in their city, and are also used by scientists to predict how fast sea levels may rise in the future.
The problem is, this data only goes back to 1872. What if we want to travel further back in time, and find out how rising sea levels have affected this historic city?
One climate scientist turned to a surprising source: paintings…
