The Welsh village that will disappear by 2054

Climate change is a serious matter and in some places, like this corner of Wales, in the United Kingdom, it can have dramatic consequences. By 2054 water will completely flood this little village called Fairbourne.

Due to its location, in the middle of a flood zone and with the sea besieging the population on several sides, Fairbourne is particularly vulnerable to rising waters. Something that is already taking place and at great speed.

According to the calculations of local authorities, in a period of two or three decades Fairbourne will be swallowed by the sea. And for this reason, in 2014, the 700 inhabitants of this town were officially urged to find a new place to call home.

The BBC called the Fairbourne residents "Britain's first climate refugees".

However, the BBC also reported that many of the inhabitants of Fairbourne do not want to leave their home.

Gywnedd Council, which has oversight of Fairbourne, argues that the coastal defenses and dikes with which currently are preventing flooding in Fairbourne will not be able to withstand the rise in sea level that will occur in ten or twenty years time.

In addition, there is an economic factor,  according to the BBC:  "From 2054, the costs of maintaining the flood defenses, estimated at £115m ($142m) over the next 100 years by the council."

This amount vastly exceeds the economic benefits the village will reap, which are estimated at  £70m ($87m).

So the decision that has been made is to completely dismantle the village. But those who have their home resist.

It would not be the first time that a town has relocated due to climate change. The town of Valmeyer, in Illinois (USA), did so in 1993, moving a couple of miles to the east after suffering a devastating flood of waters from the Mississippi River (in the image).

Scientists said that such flooding would be repeated and the town Valmeyer was moved to a new location.

However, for the people of Fairbourne, refounding their village in a new place is not so simple. And, above all, they want to preserve the peace in which they live and the horizon they see every day, that deep blue Irish Sea.

Nor do the authorities seem to have made a serious plan (with financial aid and incentives) to seduce the inhabitants of Fairbourne. A journalist from the Argentinian newspaper Clarín was told by residents of the village: "If they want us to leave, they have to accommodate us."

Be that as it may, if the waters continue to rise due to global warming, sooner rather than later it will be the end of Fairbourne, founded in the mid-19th century in an area of marshes on the Welsh coast.

There are other examples in the world of places where rising water levels are doomed. In the United States, the island of Tangier (in Virginia), has already been reduced in size due to flooding.

And there is, of course, the dramatic case of Tuvalu, a Polynesian archipelago whose mainland is, on average, two meters above sea level. The authorities fear that these islands will disappear in a few decades.

But the concern is global. For example, what will happen if the sea level rises sharply in areas like the Netherlands?

The Dutch have prospered living below sea level thanks to their talent for hydraulic engineering but a quick rise of the water level could potentially wipe the country out.

The Fairbourne story is yet another warning: we must prepare and stop climate change at all costs. Otherwise, we will see tragic migrations where people will have to leave their homes, village or even countries forever. By floods, drought or unbearable heat.