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.

The military dimensions of science and technology (May 2005)

Presentation by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, on 'Engineering in Society' undergraduate course, Lancaster University, May 2005
 

Climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and civil engineering

Lecture by Dr Stuart Parkinson at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, May 2005
 

The military agenda: the role of science, engineering and technology

Presentation by Dr Chris Langley, SGR, as part of a Debate at the Royal Institution on 11 May 2005
 

Ethics teaching for science and technology students

Identifying potential cases to include in ethical curricula for science and engineering students - the military presence

Notes for a Symposium given by Dr Chris Langley, SGR in Copenhagen, Denmark, in April 2005
 

Public inquiry on Whinash wind farm: SGR response

Written Evidence in support of the application by Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR; 18 April 2005
 

Abolition of the AEBC

Letter by Eva Novotny, SGR, to Margaret Beckett, MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, 25 March 2005
 

Letter to UK Government on Climate Change Programme

Letter to Margaret Beckett (Environment Minister) re: Consultation on the Review of the UK Climate Change Programme, 1 March 2005
 

UK Climate Change Strategy: SGR/AESR response

Main text of SGR/AESR Response to the Consultation on the UK Climate Change Programme, 1 March 2005
 

Energy, CO2 stabilisation and economic growth

Peter Smith, Nottingham University, looks at the scale of changes that are needed in energy production to tackle climate change.

Article from joint SGR/ AESR Newsletter, February 2005
 

Soldiers in the Laboratory

Military involvement in science and technology - and some alternatives

SGR report - written by Chris Langley; edited by Stuart Parkinson and Philip Webber; 19 January 2005

The UK’s involvement in the ‘War on terror’, especially the use of military force in Iraq, has been one of the most hotly contested issues in recent years. Meanwhile public confidence in science has been hit hard by controversies from GM crops to the MMR vaccine. This report investigates where military and scientific endeavours have intertwined—revealing the extent of the power and influence that the military has within UK science and engineering. The report describes how this influence has developed since the end of the Cold War, and examines whether the current level of military involvement in science and technology is the best way of contributing to the goals of peace, social justice and environmental sustainability.