Publications

Winter 2017

Feature articles cover: cyber-security threats to nuclear weapons; renewable energy expansion; commercialisation of UK universities; links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons; landmines; fracking and public health; arms and fossil fuels industries in schools; nuclear submarine risks.

Winter 2016

Feature articles cover: failings in UK climate policy; the flaws of nuclear deterrence; climate impacts of space tourism; the risks of another Chernobyl/ Fukushima; ocean acidification; military science and technology; the Paris climate agreement; teaching science ethics

This report updates and summarises the latest scientific and technical information about the risks posed by the continued deployment of the UK's nuclear weapons.

Philip Webber and Stuart Parkinson

2015

Winter 2015

Feature articles cover: science and engineering for war; shale gas and fracking; risks of nuclear weapons use; chemical weaponry and World War I; controlling global carbon emissions; UK domestic energy efficiency programmes; corporate influence on research on genetically-modified crops

This report reviews evidence across a number of issues associated with shale gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). These include environmental and public health aspects and socioeconomic considerations.

Gwen Harrison, Stuart Parkinson and Gary McFarlane

2014

In this addendum to the SGR report, Offensive Insecurity (September 2013), we present an estimate of total UK government spending on nuclear weapons R&D, drawing on the data obtained for the report via freedom of information requests, and on further publicly available information about the different R&D spending streams.

Stuart Parkinson

2014

Autumn 2013

Feature articles cover: UK military R&D and alternatives; sustainable communities; Arctic ice cap melting; nuclear weapons proliferation via nuclear power; honesty in medical science; climate change and shale gas
 

The role of science and technology in UK security strategies

This report reveals new data on the billions spent on continuing to develop Cold War-style weaponry that is not relevant to the UK's current security threats, as well as exposing the failure of government departments to account properly for hundreds of millions of pounds.

Stuart Parkinson, Barnaby Pace and Philip Webber

2013

This short report presents evidence that the detonation of the nuclear warheads carried on just one UK Trident submarine would lead to vast quantities of smoke being generated that would led to a sharp climate cooling, causing a global crop failure which would threaten the lives of some 1 billion people. This would be in addition to the deaths of over 10 million people killed directly by blast, fire and fallout from the nuclear explosions.

Philip Webber

2013

Autumn 2012 - 20th anniversary issue

Feature articles cover: UK military R&D; alternatives to Iran's nuclear programme; low carbon transition pathways; offshore wind and marine energy; nuclear disarmament; sustainable building materials; corporate science communication; local sustainable energy; synthetic biology; the Fukushima nuclear disaster; and climate change sceptics