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.

It can seem odd that a refusal to act is a good way to motivate action, writes Andrew Simms, SGR. But striking has been a tool of change for most of recorded history and for good reasons.

17 September 2019

Barnaby Pace explores how international examples of defence diversification programmes show what success could look like in the UK – answering employment concerns and if Britain's nuclear weapons should be cancelled or curtailed.

10 September 2019

Dr Philip Webber, Scientists for Global Responsibility, considers the recent demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and recalls the dangerous decade before it was originally agreed.

29 August 2019

As the world marks the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, argues that human space-flight is highly polluting, very expensive and has contributed to international arms races.

20 July 2019

Dr Jan Maskell, SGR, examines the potential of behaviour change to help to reduce plastic waste.

2 July 2019

Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, summarises the latest data on the large but neglected carbon emissions of military activities, and argues that they need to be rapidly reduced.

29 June 2019

Dr Peter Burt of Drone Wars UK says that, in spite of contrary assurances, the UK is developing the components of autonomous weaponry.

12 June 2019

Prof John Finney argues that we must act to prevent the ‘morally repugnant’ prospect of machines with the power and discretion to take human life.

11 June 2019

Dr Philip Webber, SGR, summarises the extremely serious dangers of the continued deployment of nuclear weapons around the world, in this article first published on the Metro website.

7 June 2019

The nuclear armed nations have inadvertently created a global Doomsday machine, built with 15,000 nuclear weapons. Most (93%) have been built by Russia and in the US, 3,100 of them are ready to fire within hours.

 

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/18/we-will-all-end-up-killing-each-other-an…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Dr Philip Webber, SGR, argues that UK government thinking on security needs to change profoundly, and use more of a science-based approach to tackling global problems.

5 June 2019