He sells oysters and shrimp used by commercial and tourist fishermen. He runs a bait shop not far from the ghost forest.
A fisherman with not enough baitįisherman Ed Atkins can tell you about climate change's effect by looking at his fish tanks. Other signs of trouble require a more experienced eye to spot. Ghost forests are perhaps the most striking signs of climate change on the South Carolina coast. More than half of the new ghost forests emerged after 2011 as a result of drought and high tides driven by climate change. It found that nearly 25 square miles of healthy coastal woodlands in the southeast withered into white shadows of themselves over a 35-year period starting in the mid-1980s. "Ghost forests have happened for thousands of years or so, but we're seeing more ghost forests occur at a faster rate than before," she says.Ī Duke University study released earlier this year looked at the accelerating growth of ghost forests. The forests can be seen up and down the East Coast, Clarke says, and especially so in recent years. " sort of breathtaking the way that you can look at it and see the direct impacts of sea level rise right here on the coast," says Lora Clarke, a marine conservationist with the Pew Charitable Trusts, an NPR funder. The salty water slowly poisons the trees, turning them a bleachy white. It is created when high tides push seawater into woodland areas. Glance up the shoreline, and there are countless dead, white trees. Bare branches stretch out in every direction, as if the Greek priestess Medusa had petrified herself and all the snakes moving on her head had turned to stone. A tree slowly poisoned by salt water turns whiteĪbout an hour and half south of Charleston, S.C., a chalky white tree stands in the water on a beachfront in Hunting Island State Park. Representatives from nearly 200 countries are negotiating efforts to cut global emissions to stem the rising sea levels.
The signs of the impact of rising seas levels are both subtle and clear, and taken together, point to the looming crisis climate scientists have been describing - the kind that world leaders who gathered in Scotland at a global climate summit this week are trying to solve.
And each uniquely represents what's at stake: the lives and livelihoods of those who call this area home. This is a story about a tree, a fisherman and a queen.Įach is profoundly connected to a South Carolina coastal community threatened by rising sea levels caused by climate change.