Ban Khun Samut Chin, Thailand - On the surface Ban Khun Samut Chin is an idyllic Thai fishing village. Yet looking towards the horizon confirms that something is seriously awry. Speared into the ocean, a line of equally spaced telegraph poles disappears into the distance. The road that once ran parallel to the poles connecting houses, farms and rural markets, is nowhere to be seen. All that is visible is a vast ocean.

The very thing that makes Samut Chin idyllic - the crystal blue sea - is also destroying it. The sea is doing what it has always done: In its usual rhythmic motion, it comes and goes, pushing and pulling, obeying the dictates of the sun and the moon. What is unusual is that it is doing it one kilometre farther inland than before.

Climate scientists say that as global warming heats up the planet, polar ice caps and glaciers melt and seawaters expand, causing oceans to rise, and in effect, disturbing the Earth's delicate balance.

Thailand's majestic coastline, only 50km from its overpopulated and chaotic capital, Bangkok, is now under the sea. Samut Chin village radiates a remoteness that seems at odds with its proximity to the urban sprawl. To get there involves driving along concrete highways and an elegant span of bridges until the roads get progressively smaller and turn into rural lanes. Then the road abruptly ends among the mangroves and the boat journey begins. The boatman guns the longboat at breakneck speed, snaking and cutting his way through black water and arching tree roots, eventually arriving at a wooden jetty on stilts. The last part of the journey is on foot, following the weaving path to the centre of the village.

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www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/thailand-village-samut-chin-turning-tide-151122115118755.html