SALEM — A long, blue wave will appear as if out of nowhere on Saturday, unfold like a mighty wall of water and, as quickly as it arrives, vanish like the tide. But for those few minutes it is here, it will likely be seen by many and, in the hope of its creator, do its small part to change the world.

Environmental artist Terry Bastian, a Salem resident, has created a temporary art installation that he will unveil between noon and 2 p.m. on Saturday along Derby Wharf. He calls it the Blue Wave Project — 200 yards of blue fabric that will be stretched along the city's waterfront to show how high sea levels could rise over the next century due to climate change.

It is reminiscent of public installations by Christo, the world-renowned artist who has wrapped buildings and islands and who garnered headlines a few years ago when he covered New York's Central Park with miles of orange fabric.

On a much smaller scale, the blue wave is a local artist's attempt to draw the public's attention to what he sees as an advancing environmental tsunami.

"I want to show what may happen, not necessarily what will or has to happen," Bastian said during a telephone interview from Martha's Vineyard, where he did a similar blue wave installation this week. "We're installing this to get people's attention and awareness. ... I (feel) very strongly it is part of the artist's role in society to help people see what is unimaginable."

If sea levels rise to the levels of Bastian's blue wave, city landmarks could be underwater in 100 years — The House of the Seven Gables, the Custom House, Pickering Wharf, Shetland Park and anything else now standing at the ocean's edge. To help make that point, he will look for volunteers from the crowd to hold up the fabric to show where sea levels could be by 3008.

The point of the project is not doom and gloom, he said. Just the opposite. The blue wave was created to show what could happen if climate change goes unchecked, but also what can be prevented if people shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies like the sun, wind and water.

"What I'm trying to say with this art piece is not just, 'Oh, this is what could happen,' but that there isn't an energy crisis whatsoever, there's just a crisis of the imagination," he said. There are solutions out there, he said, if people investigate what is being done elsewhere in the world and commit to finding solutions right under their own noses — maybe right in Salem Harbor.

"We should have a windmill on every one of those islands," he said.

Since the start of the year, the blue wave has been to an island off the coast of Belize, a country in Central America where Bastian has a studio, and to Florida and New Bedford. It is in Sandwich today at the Cape Cod Canal Visitors Center.

In Salem, the project is funded by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council and is done in conjunction with the Peabody Essex Museum, whose current exhibit "Polar Attractions" explores climate change. The artist-activist will give a talk next week at the PEM on his project and climate change.

But the message, he said, is a simple one whether told through words or a few hundred yards of fabric: "We made this mess and we can unmake it."

If you go

What: The Blue Wave Project: Artist Terry Bastian leads a public art installation using bolts of blue fabric to show projected sea levels in Salem 100 years from now due to climate change.

When: Saturday, July 12, noon to 2 p.m.

Where: Meet at noon in front of Peabody Essex Museum, Essex Street pedestrian mall, and walk to Derby Wharf.

What else: The artist will give a talk, "Between the Melting Poles: How do we Adapt?" on Thursday, July 17, at 7 p.m. at the PEM.