News
Here's a selection of the latest content on the Scientists for Global Responsibility website.
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Resources
With the Royal Society holding a conference on green finance, Andrew Simms, SGR, looks at the gap between the institution's words and actions.
22 July 2021
As billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson launch the first flights of their space tourism corporations, Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, takes a look at the climate impacts.
20 July 2021
Prof Alice Larkin, University of Manchester, argues that, if our society were really serious about tackling climate change, we would put much greater priority on social and economic change - as shown by the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
29 June 2021
As NATO publishes its new climate plan, Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, questions whether the current military interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is serious.
15 June 2021
Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, looks at the latest data on military carbon emissions, both in the UK and internationally - revealing the actual extent of the 'carbon bootprint'. He also outlines the threat to the climate from nuclear weapons.
3 June 2021
SGR's objections to the proposals for a huge new deep coal mine in West Cumbria, UK.
28 May 2021
Britain’s security and defence priorities in the wake of Brexit emphasise high tech military equipment such as robotic and nuclear weapons, while overseas aid is slashed and action on climate change remains inadequate. Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, assesses the situation.
11 May 2021
Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, outlines how the military fuels climate change - and thus how there is an urgent need for arms conversion. He summarises the latest data on the 'military carbon boot-print' and looks at examples of arms conversion, from the 1976 Lucas Plan to the 2020 Ventilator Challenge.
23 April 2021
The Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change says we should target the UK’s polluter elite for sustainable behaviour shift. Andrew Simms, SGR, reports.
13 April 2021
Andrew Simms, SGR, describes the UK's great aid betrayal, and the moral failure of pandemic vaccines not reaching the world's poorest.
8 March 2021
Militaries use a lot of fossil fuels, yet are frequently exempt from publicly reporting their carbon emissions. SGR and CEOBS examine EU military carbon footprints in a new report by Stuart Parkinson and Linsey Cottrell.
23 February 2021
In November 2020, the UK government announced a huge increase in military spending, a modest increase in climate change spending, and an enormous cut to the overseas aid budget. Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, looks at the implications for Britain's effort to tackle the climate crisis.
22 February 2021
Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, outlines how a major increase in UK military spending will draw universities further into programmes related to nuclear weapons, armed drones, and military space technology - fuelling arms races and decreasing international security.
24 January 2021
Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) welcomes the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and calls on the UK government to support it.
22 January 2021
Dr Jan Maskell, SGR, summarises how commuters changed their behaviour during the Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020, and assesses the implications for tackling the climate emergency.
8 January 2021
As the world approaches the 'entry into force' of a new United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons, Dr Philip Webber, SGR, summarises the key scientific and technological information on the current threat from these arms.
Latest update: 16 December 2020
Scientists, engineers and academics working in climate commit to personal behaviour change and calling out policy conflicts to tackle the climate emergency
10 December 2020
SGR response to UK govt announcements on boosting military spending, cutting aid spending, and slightly increasing climate spending.
30 November 2020
Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, argues that we need to prioritise scientific research and improve communication of global catastrophic risks, if we are to avert disaster for human society and the natural environment.
19 November 2020
Presentation by Dr Lucy Gilliam, Transport and Environment, at SGR conference, Transition Now
7 November 2020
Dr Phil Johnstone, Sussex University, presents the evidence that the UK's nuclear power programme has strong military links. Presentation at the SGR conference, Transition Now
7 November 2020
Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, looks at how arms, car and plane companies retooled to produce medical ventilators. Presentation at the SGR conference, Transition Now.
7 November 2020
Prof Nick Robins, London School of Economics, examines how the banking sector can support a rapid, just, net-zero emission economic conversion across the UK.
7 November 2020
Prof Julia Steinberger, University of Lausanne, argues that tackling the climate crisis requires drastic changes to contemporary human society, but that decent material living for all the world's population can still be achieved.
4 November 2020
Prof Bill McGuire, University College London, warns about the risks of geoengineering as a way of dealing with the climate crisis, especially 'solar radiation management'.
4 November 2020
Jess Worth, Culture Unstained, looks at the lessons from the campaign to remove fossil fuel interests from cultural institutions and science museums.
4 November 2020
Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, summarises the serious and growing threat from arms races in emerging military technologies.
3 October 2020
Dr Emily Heath, Ethics4USS, appeals to academics and others to support the campaigns to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels and other unethical industries.
23 September 2020
With a UK moratorium on fracking, attention is at last turning to alternative sources of methane. Wiebina Heesterman outlines the science and technology of anaerobic digestion, while Stuart Parkinson gives a brief overview of the potential of bio-methane to meet UK demand for gas.
27 August 2020
The aviation sector has been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis. But its huge environmental impacts mean we should take the opportunity to carry out major reforms, argues Prof John Whitelegg, Liverpool John Moores University, in the second of two blogs on transport issues.
29 June 2020
Prof John Whitelegg, Liverpool John Moores University, looks at how the UK can transition to a sustainable transport system by building on some of the changes pursued during the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’. In the first of two blogs, he focuses on surface travel.
12 June 2020
SGR’s Andrew Simms interviews the leading voice on climate science, Prof Kevin Anderson of the Universities of Manchester and Uppsala, about the responsibilities of scientists in the climate emergency
9 June 2020
Dr Phil Webber, SGR, looks at some emerging implications from the Covid-19 crisis for policies related to health, social justice, science, economics, environment protection and security.
28 April 2020
The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are profoundly affecting our world. Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, takes an initial look at some of the lessons we should be learning.
25 March 2020
Projects
To read the full text of 'A science oath for the climate', see the list of signatories, and/or to add your own name, please read on....
Extra background on the Science oath for the climate, including further reading and FAQs.
Publications
Responsible Science is SGR's new journal in which we explore some of the biggest ethical challenges facing science and technology today.
It comes with membership of SGR and keeps you up-to-date with what we’re doing.
March 2020
This briefing examines the importance of behaviour change across society to help tackle the climate crisis, and the potential of scientists and engineers to act as role models for such change.
Andrew Simms with Stuart Parkinson
November 2019
This report reveals how fossil fuel and arms corporations are financing professional engineering and science organisations and explores the range of problematic issues that result.
Stuart Parkinson and Philip Wood
October 2019