In the Doomsday scenario, the UK pulls through

photo credit: Media Specialist

Billions of people could be wiped out over the next century as a result of global warming - but those lucky enough to be on the British Isles have a pretty good chance of survival. So says the Gaia scientist Professor James Lovelock in his book The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity. He reckons the world’s population could fall from 6.5 billion to as low as 500 million as climate change - “global heating” in his words - makes vast swathes of the planet uninhabitable. Lovelock predicts that as equatorial regions heat up and agriculture there collapses, millions of people will battle to reach cooler spots such as the UK, which, being small and surrounded by water, will suffer a rise of only about 8C, leaving it cool enough to sustain a technologically advanced nation. Conditions here in 2100 will resemble the summer of 2003, he says, making the UK:

“a very desirable piece of real estate”

Britain’s population will then become as dense as modern-day Hong Kong. In Lovelock’s view there’s little we can do to halt the rise in temperature, though he believes people should still do what they can.