HAVE you heard about the Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security Report, that was released by the government recently?

No? I thought not.

It’s so devastating in its conclusions that I’m not surprised that they wanted to keep it as quiet as they could.

Here is just a small section of it:

• The world is already experiencing the impacts of biodiversity loss, including crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks.

• Ecosystem degradation is occurring across all regions and ecosystems. The average size of monitored wildlife populations declined by 73 per cent between 1970-2020. Freshwater species have shown the largest losses, falling 84 per cent in the same period.

• The rate of extinction is tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10-million years.

• With current trends, global ecosystem degradation is highly likely to continue to 2050 and beyond.

• As the global population grows, reaching 9.7-billion by 2050, the impact of food production on natural systems will intensify and it will become even more challenging to produce sufficient food sustainably.

I could go on – but I’d run out of space.

One year ago, MPs debated the Climate and Nature Bill in Parliament. The landmark debate highlighted the urgent need for the Government to address the climate-nature crisis. Since then, we have seen a little progress but nowhere near enough. And some of our political parties would reverse even these small steps if they had the chance.

But the UK still remains off track, underprepared, and saddled with outdated legislation on both climate and nature. This latest devastating report revealed that, without significant action, the UK is sleepwalking into a national security crisis that undermines every aspect of our lives — whether it's health, food supply, crime threat, poverty or even national and international conflict.