Issues

We currently focus on four main issues: disarmament and security, climate change and energy, questions of who controls science and technology and issues surrounding new and emerging technologies. You will also see that we work on some other issues too. You can explore these with the menu on the left of this page and with the search function. Material in this section includes all SGR's main outputs since 2005, with a selection of the more important material from before then.

Flooding (Hermann Traub via Pixabay)

Climate change: an introduction to SGR's work

An introduction to SGR's concerns and activities on climate change.

Latest update: 28 August 2020

Photo of a whale's tail with backdrop of mountains

Whales and international climate change law

Michaela Girvan proposes new ways to protect cetaceans under international environmental law due to their role in helping to tackle climate change.

24 March 2025

Gianluca Grimalda travelling by cargo ship

An act of conscientious objection for the climate

Dr Gianluca Grimalda writes about the legal struggle that ensued when he refused to fly for his academic work.

6 March 2025

Trident submarine

UK nuclear weapons: from Vanguard to Dreadnought

Dr Philip Webber, SGR, summarises the latest situation with the UK's nuclear weapons programme, including technical problems, rising costs, and the heightened risks from nuclear confrontation.

27 February 2025

Matrix

Responsible AI: are governments and corporations giving up?

Dr Philip Inglesant, SGR, warns that the recent upsurge in enthusiasm for Artificial Intelligence (AI) downplays the increasing dangers which are arising due to the erosion of safeguards.

13 February 2025

 

Child amid rubble in Palestine

Gaza: how the West’s weapons are fuelling a catastrophe

Dr Philip Webber, SGR, updates earlier analysis of the considerable humanitarian impacts of the war in Gaza, including probable genocide. In particular, he summarises the role of the arms industries in the USA, UK, and elsewhere.

12 February 2025 (updated)
 

Football report cover

How big is the carbon footprint of football?

Dr Stuart Parkinson and Andrew Simms summarise SGR’s new research on the greenhouse gas emissions of the global football sector, and explore whether reducing the carbon footprint of football can help accelerate wider climate action.

3 February 2025

image representing elements of science and industry

R&D and the polycrisis: from corporate science to responsible science?

Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, highlights a range of problems with current science policies, and suggests ways in which they could better contribute to tackling the polycrisis and meeting social and environmental goals.

7 January 2025

Electricity pylons image by Tom via Pixabay

The Energy Dilemma: will even greater consumption lead to more problems?

Prof Gareth Wyn Jones, Bangor University, draws on evidence from physics and biology to economics and political science to explore the effects of greater energy consumption on social and environmental goals. 

5 December 2024
 

Nuclear hazard symbol

Civil and military nuclear programmes: will they be derailed by skills shortages?

Alasdair Beal takes a look at the UK nuclear industry – and finds that the proposed expansion has a workforce problem.

4 December 2024