ghost tree

The Ghost Tree addresses rising sea levels as one of the most threatening effects of global warming. As waters heat up and ice-caps melt, sea levels rise, killing trees from the roots up. This action leaves thousands of acres of dead woods sitting in newly formed wetlands, and thus opens both rural and urban areas vulnerable to destruction from increasingly more violent storms. Driven by profound environmental shifts that include climate change, sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has drastically increased in recent decades. The mid-Atlantic region has seen an accelerated rising of tides, with the waters’ gaining as much as 5 millimeters per year in some places: well above the global average of 3.1 millimeters. This unprecedented rise in sea can mean saltwater pushing 15 feet inland per year. In many locations along the U.S. coastline, nuisance flooding is now 300% to more than 900% more frequent than it was 50 years ago. Scientists are very confident that global mean sea level will rise between 8 inches to 78 inches by 2100, depending on the energy decisions we make today.