The Rest Is Politics, produced by Goalhanger, is launching a new investigative series presented by Caroline Lucas, the former Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion, exploring how climate breakdown and nature loss are reshaping the meaning of national security.
When Nature Becomes A Security Threat examines a suppressed Government-commissioned report, compiled by the Joint Intelligence Committee - the UK’s most senior intelligence assessment body, bringing together MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - which warned that ecosystem collapse must now be treated as a core national security threat, says the publisher.
The report, Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security, found that multiple interconnected ecosystem breakdowns are increasingly likely, with profound consequences for the UK. It examined six globally significant ecosystems vital to Britain’s long-term stability, including the Amazon and Congo rainforests, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia’s coral reefs and mangroves, and found that each was on a pathway to collapse, the publisher continued.
Across the series, Lucas will speak to leading voices from security, diplomacy, food systems, water, climate and geopolitics to explore what these warnings mean for Britain’s food supply, borders, infrastructure, economic stability and international standing and ask why they have barely registered in mainstream political debate.
The first two episodes examine the national security risks posed by climate and nature collapse. Episode 1 features Lt General Richard Nugee and former diplomat Arthur Snell, while Episode 2, with Oxford Professor Paul Behrens, investigates the UK’s vulnerability to food shocks and a second Government report warning that Britain’s food security is “at risk of catastrophic failure” as climate change, habitat loss and geopolitical instability converge. Future guests also include Sandra Postel, Oliver Hayes, Aminath Shauna and Alex Randall.
According to The Rest is Politics, the four-part series includes:
- Episode 1: Caroline Lucas speaks to Lt General Richard Nugee and Arthur Snell about why the UK’s intelligence and security establishment now sees climate and ecosystem collapse as a national security threat.
- Episode 2: With Paul Behrens, this episode explores Britain’s hidden food vulnerability, the risk of empty shelves and supply shocks, and why ministers appear reluctant to confront the scale of the threat.
- Episode 3: This episode examines water scarcity and the growing geopolitical consequences of a world in which reliable access to water can no longer be taken for granted, including a case study of the impact of surging numbers of AI data centres on local water demand.
- Episode 4: The final episode will explore how the reality behind the tabloid headlines of borders breaking down, and examine what climate and ecosystem collapse really means for our future security.
Caroline Lucas, host - When Nature Becomes a Security Threat said: “For 40 years, I’ve been trying to persuade successive governments to take the climate and nature crises more seriously, but I have never read an official report as alarming as this one. Commissioned from the Government’s own intelligence community, its conclusions are chilling: threats to the UK economy, our food systems and our geopolitical stability. The fact that ministers tried to suppress its publication only makes it more urgent that people understand what it says. That is why I’m making this series.”
Tom Whiter, general manager - politics & current affairs at Goalhanger, added: “What makes When Nature Becomes a Security Threat so important is that it reframes the climate and nature crises not as distant environmental issues, but as immediate questions of national security, food resilience, geopolitics and public accountability. With Caroline Lucas bringing decades of authority, scrutiny and experience to the subject, this series does exactly what The Rest Is Politics is here to do: take one of the most urgent and underexamined political stories of our time and make it impossible to ignore.”
When Nature Becomes a Security Threat will launch on 17 July, with new episodes released weekly via The Rest Is Politics feed.
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