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.

Out of their depth? Uncertainties in nuclear waste management

Rachel Western argues that the nuclear industry and the UK government are not properly considering the scientific evidence in their rush to ‘solve’ the problem of radioactive waste.

Article from SGR Newsletter no. 36, autumn 2008
 

Expanding renewable energy in the UK

Dave Andrews and Martin Quick give two perspectives on the potential for expanding the deployment of variable or intermittent renewable energy in the UK. In the first article, Andrews argues that the disadvantages of these types of technologies are much less than detractors claim while, in the second article, Quick outlines some innovative ways of expanding their deployment.

Two articles from SGR Newsletter no.36, autumn 2008
 

Reducing carbon emissions from housing

Kate Macintosh MBE outlines the environmental standards for new housing in the UK and argues that the bigger problems related to the quality of the existing housing stock are being neglected.

Article from SGR Newsletter 36, autumn 2008
 

Threat of accidental global nuclear war could be growing

Press release, 25 September 2008 

Climate change – why it could be worse than the IPCC projections

Presentation given by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, at the Climate Forum, London; June 2008
 

Behind Closed Doors

Military influence, commercial pressures and the compromised university

SGR briefing by Chris Langley, Stuart Parkinson and Philip Webber; June 2008

This briefing builds upon the disclosures of, and recommendations provided in, Soldiers in the Laboratory and More Soldiers in the Laboratory and focuses on the impact of military sector influence within the research and teaching environment of universities in the UK.
 

Behind Closed Doors - report launch

Press release, 12 June 2008
 

Military R&D 85 times larger than renewable energy R&D

Stuart Parkinson and Chris Langley outline SGR’s latest research whose revelations include statistics from across the industrialised world showing the massive imbalance between government R&D spending for military purposes and that for social and environmental purposes.

Article for SGR Newsletter, No. 35, winter 2008
 

Could one Trident submarine cause 'nuclear winter'?

Philip Webber, SGR, analyses the latest research on the potential climatic impacts of nuclear war and demonstrates that the firepower of just one of the UK's Trident submarines could be devastating for the whole planet.

Article from SGR Newsletter, No. 35, winter 2008

 

The employment benefits of *not* replacing Trident

Steven Schofield argues that investing the billions earmarked for Trident replacement in alternative sectors would more than offset the job losses in the nuclear weapons sector.

Article from SGR Newsletter, No. 35, winter 2008