The Coronavirus has caused millions of people to stay inside and self-quarantine from the rest of the world. During a time of fear and worry, people feed off of possible hope during this pandemic. Recently, a tweet about the canals in Venice went viral on Twitter with over one million likes and almost 300 thousand shares. This tweet said, “Here’s an unexpected side effect of the pandemic – the water’s flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned.” This tweet may sound optimistic, it is false news. People responded positively thinking that having everyone in self-quarantine will magically “heal” nature.
Another tweet went viral regarding the Venice canals as well. This tweet said, “Venice hasn’t seen clear canal water in a very long time. Dolphins showing up too. Nature just hit the reset button on us.” Thousands of people responded positively to this tweet as well. During stressful situations seeing hopeful posts about restoring the world will induce joyful emotions. However, these tweets are providing false information about animals living in a “human-less” world.
The swans in the first tweet are not returning, in fact, they are regulars. They are normally seen swimming around the smaller islands around the main area of Venice. While the boats may scare the swan from swimming everywhere, they have always been in Venice. Regarding the dolphins swimming freely in the canals, they are actually dolphins filmed in Sardinia. Sardinia happens to be hundreds of miles south of Venice against the Mediterranean Sea. The clear water in Venice is because of the lack of boat use; however, the main reason is that the dirt and sediments are laying on the bottom of the canals. Without boats, the dirt is not mixed with the water making the water appear dirtier than when the canals are boatless. Boats are also contributing to water pollution, but the dirt is what makes the water appear brown.
The canals are beautiful due to the lack of boat use which does bring joy to residents of Venice and everyone around the world. Having optimism during the pandemic will help those who are stressed during this time. According to Susan Clayton, a psychology and environmental science professor at the University of Wooster, “I think people really want to believe in the power of nature to recover.” She shares how people would love to think that humans polluting the earth can be reversed and that nature can always recover. The downside to these fake feel-good news stories is that the public may distrust the media more than they already do. These tweets may bring spirits up during a crisis, but in reality, nature cannot bounce back from dire situations in only a couple of weeks or months of isolation.