Prof James Lovelock has issued a doomsday prediction that billions of people worldwide will die due to famine and loss of land brought on by the effects of rising temperatures.

However, Lovelock says that Ireland and Britain will escape relatively unscathed as the loss of the North Atlantic Drift will offset the rise in global temperatures.

While Ireland will be more susceptible to flooding and harsh winters, the decline of 80C in temperature due to the loss of the North Atlantic Drift will be compensated for by global temperatures rising by the same amount. "In effect, we'll lose eight and gain eight, leaving us in much the same position, " the UK expert told the Sunday Tribune.

Lovelock . . . most famous for developing the Gaia theory, which sees the planet as a self-regulating single organism . . . says the point of no return has already been passed in terms of global warming: "It is no longer possible to save the world, we just have to keep it going for as long as we can, " he said.

According to the professor, planet earth is heading into the same situation as it faced 55 million years ago when a large release of carbon into the atmosphere caused the world's temperatures to rise by 80C. Lovelock believes there will be a similar rise in temperatures by the end of this century, with devastating effects.

"Billions of people will die because we will have no way to feed them, " he said. "Huge tracts of land will turn into scrub and desert, which will lead to starvation on a massive scale. On the other hand, countries such as Bangladesh, which has a population of 150 million, will completely disappear under water.

Where are all those people going to go?"

Aside from widespread famine in large parts of the world, the rise in temperatures will make events such as the heatwave of 2003 . . .which killed 35,000 people on mainland Europe . . . more commonplace.

A rise of 80C will make certain regions almost uninhabitable, "especially countries such as Spain, where the summer is already becoming intolerable".

Fortunately for Ireland and Britain, the loss of the North Atlantic Drift will have the effect of cancelling such a rise in temperatures, even if it will lead to other problems such as flooding.

"No civilisation can expect to survive forever, they all come to an end eventually, " said Lovelock.

"But when civilisation ends, there are always survivors. In this case, the survivors will be based in the Arctic and the British Isles, both of which will be warmer than Ireland or England is now. We are probably the luckiest people in the world . . . our biggest problem may be keeping everyone else from trying to move here."