London is under water. The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Bank of England are all submerged. Far away, the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have collapsed, triggering accelerated sea level rise which, combined with a storm surge in the North Sea and a high spring tide, has led to water flooding over the Thames Barrier. Thousands of shops, offices, schools and houses are several feet deep in effluent-rich water.
Economists struggle to calculate the ongoing economic damage, but everyone knows it is epochal. The realisation dawns that the UK’s capital city is no longer defendable. The government has no choice but to abandon it permanently to the waves.
