Ecosystem destruction will increase food shortages, disorder and mass migration, with effects already being felt, according to a new report to ministers.
The global attack on nature is threatening the UK’s national security, government intelligence chiefs have warned, as the increasingly likely collapse of vitally important natural systems would bring mass migration, food shortages and price rises, and global disorder.
Food supplies are particularly at risk since “without significant increases” the UK would be unable to compete with other nations for scarce resources, the report says. Some vital ecosystems could face collapse within five years, threatening the UK’s national security and prosperity.
Many of the impacts are already being felt in the form of crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks. These will intensify, resulting in “geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict, migration and increased inter-state competition for resources”.
The hard-hitting report, which originally would have been published last autumn but for an intervention by Downing Street, is attributed only to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but the Guardian understands that the joint intelligence committee, which oversees spy agencies MI5 and MI6, was responsible.
