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.

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

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
 

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.
 

SGR Response to consultation on UK Government paper, 2004
 

Article by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, published in Science and Public Affairs in September 2004
 

Caroline Smith recounts a career path that took her to the other side of the world and a new perspective on the role of science

Article from SGR Newsletter 29, July 2004
 

Responses to the consultation on the UK Government paper, Taking it on - Developing UK sustainable development strategy together, in May 2004 and July 2004
 

Presentation by Dr Stuart Parkinson, SGR, on the NESTA 'Crucible' course on 17 July, 2004
 

Notes for a lecture given by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, at Lancaster University Engineering Dept, 26 May 2004