Newsletter articles

SGR Newsletters are published roughly twice a year. The main articles are listed below. For details of the current issue and back issues, See our Newsletter page

A private jet flying over a superyacht

Polluter and cyber elites

Andrew Simms, SGR, charts a potentially lethal alignment of wealth, power and political interests in the fossil fuel and information industries, with AI entrenching and accelerating existing bias and inequalities.

20 April 2026

Person with smartphone with background symbolising digital data

The AI surge: how sustainability and responsibility are being compromised

Dr Philip Inglesant, SGR, looks at key developments in the civilian Artificial Intelligence industry over the past year, especially the massive spending increases, the rapid expansion in the number of data centres, and the continued deregulation. He points to numerous problems ahead.  

24 March 2026

Photo of chemist handling liquids while wearing full PPE

The legacy of chemical weapons, a century on from the ban

Bryony Maskell reflects on developments in the hundred years since chemical weapons fell under the first effective international prohibition treaty.

10 February 2026

Photo of Tasiilaq Bay in East Greenland

Greenland: reflections from an Arctic researcher

Michaela Louise Coote, of the universities of Lapland and Galway, discusses the serious difficulties in carrying out scientific research in the Arctic against a background of major geopolitical upheaval.  

27 January 2026

Female scientist

Disciplining dissent: UK universities, the arms industry, and protest

Laura Shewan, SGR, describes the increasingly close relationship between the military-industrial complex and the academic sector in Britain. She also highlights the increasing antagonism of university authorities to protest against that relationship. 

21 November 2025 

Fighter Jet Plane in hangar

US nuclear weapons return to the UK ready for the RAF

The UK government has announced a new nuclear role for the Royal Air Force using US bombs and aircraft. Dr Philip Webber, SGR, explores the disturbing implications of this surprise announcement.

7 October 2025

SGR report cover

Military spending surge is critical threat to climate

Spending on the world’s militaries is climbing rapidly. Dr Stuart Parkinson summarises SGR's major new report examining how this rise is affecting carbon emissions. 

16 September 2025
 

FFNPT logo over landscape with fossil fuel power stations

Carbon disarmament: the rise of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

With oil majors abandoning climate targets and politicians friendly to their interests capturing power, Andrew Simms looks at how SGR’s campaigning history inadvertently sparked an idea that informed and framed a major international campaign.

9 Sept 2025

Graph showing linear decline in emissions

The UK’s fair carbon budget will run out in 2027: here’s the evidence

Dr Ian Campbell shows how, on current trends, Britain’s carbon emissions will, within two years, exceed its fair share of the estimated global total that will breach the 1.5°C Paris target. He outlines the key implications for policy-makers and society as a whole.

8 July 2025

Photo of gleaming new cars

How can we defuse the carbon bomb of overconsumption?

Dr Veronica Wignall, Adfree Cities, exposes the role of advertising in increasing the explosive power of overconsumption and argues that it is time to stop promoting overconsumption.

16 June 2025