DOOMSDAY scenario computer mapping of the impact of climate change shows Britain as a string of islands.
The UKTV History research team, drawn from the Benfield Hazard Research Centre at University College London, identified three scenarios. The most likely, with a 1 in 20 chance of happening within 200 years, predicted a 23ft rise in sea levels caused by the melting of ice in Greenland or the West Antarctic ice sheet. This would flood most of Central London and parts of cities such as Edinburgh, Newcastle, Scunthorpe, Bristol and Plymouth .
In the worst case, a 275ft rise in sea levels would submerge massive areas of eastern England and Scotland.
Professor Bill McGuire, an environmental scientist, said: “It is clearly the West Antarctic ice sheet that is the most worrying. We could see London and many other coastal cities disappearing beneath the waves in the next 200 years.”