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Waging a battle against an encroaching tide that has sent all the villagers fleeing inland, a monk in orange robes and faded tattoos meant to ward off evil spirits stalks the newly-built sea wall, planting mangrove shoots.

Somnuek Atipanya points 20 metres out to sea, where electricity pylons poke out of the water, now useful only for resting marine birds.

 

"The waves attacked here and they will destroy everything," says Somnuek, chief abbot of this Buddhist temple south of Bangkok which is surrounded by water and accessible only by a concrete walkway.

"I don't know what happened, but when the experts came they told me it was global warming and melting ice in the North Pole."

Over 30 years, the sea around Khun Samut Chin village has engulfed more than one kilometre of land, World Bank figures show, mostly because fishermen have cut down mangrove forests -- the Earth's natural sea barrier.

Tourism development, sand mining and damming rivers upstream have also taken their toll in an area naturally prone to coastal erosion.

The community have realised their errors and are trying to replant the mangroves, but the situation may soon be out of their hands as global warming sends sea levels rising and powerful storms lashing the coast.

"The process has been occurring over some time and accelerating with land use changes and local human activity," says Jitendra Shah, the World Bank's environmental coordinator in Thailand.

"Climate change impacts are likely to accelerate the pace and make things worse in the future."

Coastal erosion of varying degrees affects 21 percent of Thailand's coastline, says Greenpeace climate campaigner Tara Buakamsri, citing figures from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Along the Gulf of Thailand, seaside areas seriously affected by erosion are receding at a rate of five to 20 metres per year.

Climate scientists say that as global warming heats the Earth up, glaciers and polar ice caps will melt and sea waters will expand, sending oceans rising by at least 18 centimetres, or possibly a great deal more by 2100.

World sea levels rose 3.1 millimetres per year from 1993 to 2003, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says.

This is not good news for the five monks who remain at Khun Samut temple. Despite their best efforts, they may not be able to save the site from the same fate that befell Khun Samut Chin's sunken school and homes.

Photo: Nation Photo

Vocabulary

to wage, v: to carry on

to encroach, v: to go to an area where one is not welcome or allowed to go

faded, adj: not clearly seen any longer; starting to disappear

tattoo, n: picture on the skin that is painted by putting ink on the skin with the help of a needle

pylon, n: mast for carrying cables or telephone lines

marine, adj: relating to the sea or the ocean

accessible, adj: can be reached

to engulf, v: to surround and cover completely

to accelerate, v: to get faster and faster

to recede, v: to go back to a level or position where one was before

Questions

1. Why is the sea slowly swallowing Khun Samut Chin village?

a. Earth's magnetic poles are realigning.

b. Fishermen have cut down mangrove forests.

c. The closer proximity of the moon increases tidal pull.

d. The centrifugal power of Earth peaked due to increased rotational speed.

2. What causes the receding of seaside areas along the gulf of Thailand?

a. solar flares

b. black holes

c. coastal erosion

d. continental drift

3. How much of Khun Samut Chin village was swallowed by the sea over the last 30 years?

a. 2m

b. 11m

c. 1km

d. 25km

4. How many monks live at Khun Samut temple?

a. five

b. seven

c. twelve

d. thirteen

5. What are the people doing to protect their temple?

a. drinking more water

b. replanting mangroves

c. raising the water level

d. pumping the water into the sea

Synonyms

Which of the following words or phrases replace the ones from the passage best?

1. scuttle

a. claw

b. swim

c. hurry

d. crawl

2. desert

a. value

b. esteem

c. worship

d. abandon

3. poke

a. lift

b. pull

c. float

d. stick

4. prone

a. likely

b. immune

c. resistant

d. oblivious

5. error

a. fate

b. task

c. duty

d. mistake

KEY

Questions             1. b, 2. c, 3. c, 4. a, 5. b

Synonyms             1. c, 2. d, 3. d, 4. a, 5. d

By Ajarn Horst Baelz