Every door you knock on in the Sundarbans reveals a story. I'd like to challenge any sceptic who believes that climate change is a myth to spend a week here.

Sundarbans is Bengali for beautiful jungle, and it could not be a more apt description of the lush green mangroves that form the backdrop of the Pashur River in southwest Bangladesh.

It's this picturesque setting that families I spoke with in Keyabunia village are desperate to protect. They often endure storms, and usually suffer a major cyclone at least once a year.

Parayara Begum, has lived in the area for 15 years. Today her home is literally right on the edge of the eroding river embankment.

She is one of the few people in her neighbourhood that has never lost her small clay home to a disaster and hasn't considered moving. I asked her if she worries about how close to the edge she is.

"Every time it gets cloudy I think this is the time I will lose it," she says.

Her husband works in the forests collecting crabs. If people continue to cut down the mangroves for fuel, she worries, they could lose this source of income.

"It's the forests that are keeping us alive. We must protect them," one man told me.

Those who are able leave the village and migrate to the city to find work. The poorest of the poor are left behind. They are fearful at the prospect of being forced out of their homes by the weather.

'WHAT WOULD I DO IN THE CITY?'

"What would I do in the city?" one man asked me.

There is little in the way of work for many of the men in the community. They used to farm but increased levels of salt in the water have destroyed harvests, forcing people to move from farming to fishing.

Now everyone is fishing, so some risk their lives gathering crabs on the coast, where they risk attacks from crocodiles and tigers.

For those who spend their time trying to find loop holes in the climate change science, I have one message: There is nothing sensationalist in the accounts of devastation and hopelessness I have heard here in the Sunderbans.

This community is experiencing more severe flooding and cyclones than ever before, its people tell me. While the climate change tag can't be attached to every extreme weather event, there is clearly a pattern to all of this. What is unmistakable is this: The vast amounts of suffering that I've witnessed cannot continue.

Esther Williams is an environmental press officer for the development agency Tearfund and for Christian Relief.

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