Wales, UK: The first houses in the Welsh village of Fairbourne were built on a flood plane more than 100 years ago as a holiday destination. The village has since become a popular abode for retirees and holidaymakers looking to enjoy the tranquillity of nature and escape the realities and stresses of everyday life.
But the reality of climate change has brought the peace and quiet enjoyed by the local residents to a crashing halt. Several Welsh government reports have said that Fairbourne is potentially facing an insurmountable threat from the rising sea level and should be "decommissioned" by 2045 and the process should be completed by 2055.
Recent news reports about this issue have increased confusion and concern amongst the community.
Stuart Eves, a campsite owner and community council vice-chair, has lived in the village for more than 40 years.
While feeding his chickens at his home, he says he has not noticed a rise in tide levels on the beach and is sceptical of the report.
"You walk down to the beach and you look at the sea and it still comes up to the stones like it used to and still does," he says.
"You can't see a millimetre, two millimetres rise in the sea level a year. It is just an impossibility."
He questions why Gwynedd council is now saying the village will need to be evacuated by 2055.
"Come and show us your figures that you're using to say the sea level is going to rise that quick in that amount of time," he adds.
At a glance, the shoreline looks several metres away from the sea wall - even at high tide- but with tidal changes and weather events this could easily change.
With the village of Fairborne deemed as a high-risk flood area, the property prices in the area have plummeted since the report was published.
Eves says, "house sales have been destroyed."
Houses, "lost 40 percent of their value virtually overnight. It became virtually impossible to get a mortgage."
"Young people in the village, if they haven't got the cash to be able to buy a property, they couldn't buy one in - where they want to live," he explains.
And it is not only the future generations of Fairborne residents being affected by the flurry of panic. Angela Thomason is a pensioner and clerk to the Fairbourne community council.
She says "Coastal wise nobody is panicking like Gwynedd council has panicked the residents of Fairbourne into what is supposedly going to happen in 25, 30, 35 year's time," she says.
"They've put us in a very uncomfortable, awkward and devastating position."
Some residents feel unfairly targeted by the council's reliance on a report.
"We feel uncomfortable being called the first climate refugee village. What we want is answers now. We want to know if the seawall breaches before 2045 we want to know what's going to happen to us. Where, where Gwynedd Council and the Welsh Government and Westminster are going to put us?"
The Gwynedd Council says the report has placed it in uncharted territory in dealing with communities affected by rising the sea levels.
It has been liaising with residents of Fairbourne about the threats they face and offering counselling, regular town meetings and emotional support.
Catrin Wager, a Gwynedd Councillor, says there are currently no funds available, nor any legislation in place that will help residents of Fairbourne to resettle elsewhere.
Funding would have to come from the Welsh and United Kingdom governments, explains Wager.
Wager says, 2055 is, "the point where it becomes both economically unviable and with an increased risk to life to maintain the defences within Fairbourne."
"That's why the report recommends decommissioning starts from about 2045. At the moment there is no legislation or framework, we can't tell people to move it's up to residents whether they decide to stay that."
Sian Williams, the Natural Resources Wales Head of Operations for the north-west, says more than six million pounds was recently spent on flooding defences for the town.
Natural Resources Wales says there will be a point in the future when it is no longer economically feasible to maintain the town's flood defences and a managed retreat would be the only option for Fairbourne.
"Decommissioning will eventually mean removing the village and all the infrastructure that goes along with that," she says.
Williams says the only solution will be to surrender the village to the sea.
"So you know the properties themselves, the road and all of the other infrastructure that goes along with that and to make a community. And the village and the land that it's on will eventually become salt marsh and be handed back to the sea."
Dr Martin Austin, a senior lecturer at School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University says, "the natural evolution of a coastline is very, very slow, but if we are trying to hold the line against something that's trying to fight against that - essentially when you do get a little weakness or you perhaps get a really significant storm event, it causes changes very, very quickly and perhaps very, very catastrophically. And this is one of the concerns with locations such as Fairbourne."
Natural Resources Wales says it is trying to find a uniform approach to help communities like Fairbourne in the future as climate change is likely to cause similar uncertainty for other towns along the shoreline.
