Last autumn the government commissioned a report by the joint intelligence committee (which oversee MI5 and MI6), but the release of the report was blocked by Number 10 Downing Street because it was “too negative”.  The document linked below is the result of a ‘freedom of information request’ to get the information released. but it’s only a partial document after some items were removed. The Times, however,  did get hold of a copy of the original and according to them  additional risks were identified including how climate will drive mass migration into Britain and even trigger a nuclear war in Asia.

The version released on 20th January is the cut down 14 page assessment on how global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems could affect the UK’s resilience, security and prosperity.

This national security assessment draws on a broad range of sources, including both scientific literature and expert judgement and identifies 6 critical ecosystems that are currently at risk of collapsing. It then goes on to describe the national security risk to the UK if those ecosystems do collapse. These include:

• UK Food Insecurity
• Migration
• Serious and Organised Crime.
• Risk of Pandemics
• Economic insecurity

The food security item gets further analysis, pointing out that the UK relies on global markets for both food and fertilizer, with 40% of food coming from overseas. The UK is unable to be food self-sufficient based on current diets, and what we do produce is vulnerable to local ecosystem degradation and collapse. This would make food in the UK, both from abroad and locally grown, more scarce and inevitably significantly more expensive.

While it’s good to see the problems clearly identified in this way, what’s needed is a response that is commensurate with the issues being described, and that appears to be sorely lacking.

You can access the released document here.