The Secret Security Threat The Government Don’t Want Us To Know
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What did the Joint Intelligence Committee report warn about climate and nature as security threats?
What if the biggest threat to UK national security isn't conventional warfare, it isn't a hostile state or a terrorist network, but rather the collapse of the natural world itself? What if the government knew, yet tried to make sure that we never found out? Welcome to When Nature Becomes a Security Threat. I'm Caroline Lucas. In this series, I'm exploring the latest assessments about how nature loss and the climate crisis will make Britain less safe, and why these grave warnings are now coming not just from the environmental movement, but from the very top of our national security establishment. Last year, a report was commissioned by the government and compiled by the UK's most senior intelligence body, the Joint Intelligence Committee.
That includes the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, all in one room. Now, these are the people who advise the government about the greatest threats the country faces, and usually they're warning about state threats, espionage, terrorist organisations or cyber threats. But this report was different. It told us, definitively, that nature loss and climate breakdown is equally considered to be a core national security threat and that multiple interconnected ecosystem breakdowns are not just possible, they're increasingly likely. And the consequences for the UK would be profound. So, the report was commissioned, it was compiled and it was due to be released in October last year. The King was apparently lined up to give a speech and journalists waited in keen anticipation.
But then, Without warning, the launch was cancelled. The report was buried, and it very nearly never saw the light of day. And in fact, it's only thanks to persistent freedom of information requests from Ruth Chambers at the Green Alliance think tank that ministers did finally release a version. A version which was truncated, redacted, and without explanation. I have never read an official report that has alarmed me as much as this one. that a report of this nature is coming from the security services is something new. In this first episode, I'll be speaking with former senior British army officer, Lieutenant General Richard Nuge, and in the second half with former British diplomat and security expert, Arthur Snell.
So here's my interview with Richard Nuge.
Why was the planned public launch of the national security report unexpectedly cancelled?
So Richard, you're someone who's spent over 35 years in the army, and perhaps you're not the kind of person we would necessarily expect to now be such a passionate advocate for treating climate change and biodiversity loss as a really important issue for security, for defence, for the military. So can you explain how you came to that conclusion?
Yes, I came to that conclusion from two very, very clear things. I commanded a battle group of 1,000 soldiers in Iraq in 2003. Nobody was lost through enemy action. But I had one person die of a heart attack due to heat. I had five people I had to send home with heat stroke. And we used 250 saline drips to keep people cool because we had no air conditioning. The intensity of the heat we were utterly unprepared for. And that started to make me think, well, actually, the biggest killer for my battle group, not for others... but for my battle group was actually the heat. What are we doing about being prepared for a world where the heat, climate change, is going to get worse?
How did Lieutenant General Richard Nugee’s military experience shape his view on heat and operational risk?
That's the first thing. The second thing is that if you have a scarcity of resources and heat produces a scarcity of water and heat produces a scarcity of food, because if you don't have the water, you don't have the irrigation, you don't have the food, then you end up with competition over those resources. And there are lots of examples of non-state actors, as they're called, terrorist organizations, however you want to describe them, weaponizing food, weaponizing water to gain power. It's not about weaponizing food for the sake of food. It is to gain power. So you end up with ISIS in Iraq, Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabaab in Somalia, areas where we as a country have a view and have an influence to a greater or lesser extent.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What did the Joint Intelligence Committee report warn about climate and nature as security threats?
0:08–2:28
2
Why was the planned public launch of the national security report unexpectedly cancelled?
2:28–3:29
3
How did Lieutenant General Richard Nugee’s military experience shape his view on heat and operational risk?
3:29–7:53
4
How can ecosystem collapse drive competition for food, water and destabilise allied countries?
7:53–11:26
5
Why do intelligence analysts consider the redacted report a ‘seminal’ national security assessment?
11:26–18:28
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