Polanski demands full spy report on ecosystem collapse — SkimNews
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- Zack Polanski challenged the government at the Wild Summit in Bristol on Wednesday to publish an unredacted joint intelligence committee report warning that overseas ecosystem collapse poses catastrophic consequences for UK national security.
- The Guardian revealed the report in October, with a redacted 14-page version released in January; the full report was pulled at the last minute from a Natural History Museum event attended by King Charles at Downing Street's behest, despite repeated FOI requests.
- Findings include that collapse of ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest — feared to be reaching a tipping point — would likely cause severe food shortages, price rises, mass migration, political destabilisation and potentially armed conflict including nuclear war.
- Polanski, expected to be the Green candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, said the party would introduce a nature, biodiversity and national security bill, appoint a climate resilience minister, and create a basic income for farmers facing "wrecked harvest after wrecked harvest."
- A coalition of green groups wrote to the prime minister the same day warning the UK is on track to miss its legally binding target to restore 30% of nature by 2030, with two-thirds of protected nature sites needing "urgent repair."
- New research cited by the groups estimates about £2bn a year is needed to restore protected sites by 2042 — nearly double the current ~£1.1bn — citing exposure to flooding, drought, wildfires and pollution.
- A Labour spokesperson defended the government's record, citing a new climate-nature security taskforce and "the largest nature-friendly farming budget in history."
Why it matters: The UK government is withholding a classified intelligence assessment that links overseas ecosystem collapse — including the Amazon — to food shortages, mass migration and armed conflict risks for Britain. With farmers facing wrecked harvests and the country on track to miss its 2030 nature restoration target, the roughly £900m annual funding gap makes the secrecy harder to defend.
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