Huge Antarctic ice sheet on brink of collapse triggering global ‘catastrophe’

UK coastal cities could soon disappear from the map, as global warming threatens to unleash a natural catastrophe on the British Isles. Scientists have warned that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is on the verge of a "catastrophic" collapse.

Covering an area of roughly 760,000 square miles, it is one of the largest ice masses on Earth. Researchers from the Australian National University say the ice sheet is weakening as the planet warms up due to an increase in the atmosphere of CO2. A collapse could raise sea levels by more than 9.8ft (3 metres), plunging coastal cities and communities around the world underwater.

Among the cities and towns most likely to disappear from any future map of the UK are Hull, Skegness, Middlesbrough and Newport.

Meanwhile in Europe, much of the Netherlands, as well as Venice, Montpellier, and Gdansk, would be submerged.

Dr Nerilie Abram, lead author of the study, said rapid change across Antartica's ice and oceans had been detected. He warned that this process would worsen with "every fraction of a degree of global warming".

The scientists tried to predict what the consequences would be if the ice sheet collapsed. Their analysis indicates that a collapse would result in "catastrophic consequences for generations to come." The loss of Antarctic sea ice would have a whole range of "knock-on effects", Dr Abram wrote.

"The decline in Antarctic sea ice and the slowdown of deep circulation in the Southern Ocean are showing worrying signs of being more susceptible to a warming climate than previously thought," he continued.

"As sea ice is lost from the ocean surface, it is also changing the amount of solar heat being retained in the climate system, and that is expected to worsen warming in the Antarctic region.

"Other changes to the continent could soon become unstoppable, including the loss of Antarctic ice shelves and vulnerable parts of the Antarctic ice sheet that they hold behind them."

People living on the east coast of England would be worst hit by any substantial rise is sea levels.

Coastal hubs including Hull, Skegness and Grimsby would be plunged underwater, while places as far inland as Peterborough and Lincoln would also become waterlogged.

Further south, swathes of London would be affected - in particular Bermondsey, Greenwich, Battersea and Chelsea.