[SGRupdate] News from SGR – May 2019

[Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR)]

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News from Scientists for Global Responsibility – May 2019

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A new online home for Scientists for Global Responsibility – and conference
announcement: should scientists walk the talk on climate breakdown?


* A new home
https://www.sgr.org.uk/

Welcome to the new online home of Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR).
We’re in the same place, but everything else has changed to make us more
accessible and easier to follow.  We hope you like it, please have a look.

We are a small organisation promoting responsible science and technology, but
with a remarkable, expert membership of hundreds across the diverse fields of
science and social science, engineering and technology. We’re based in the UK
but with a global outlook and involved in several international research and
advocacy networks. We were part of the campaign awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace
Prize.

Now, SGR is bringing itself up-to-date in the middle of rising recognition of
a global climate emergency, a resurgent nuclear weapons threat, and huge
ethical issues surrounding new technologies that question our identity, rights
and democracies. We hope it means we will better add our voices and expertise
to these era-defining challenges. Our materials and resources should be far
more accessible, and the organisation even easier to join!

See: https://www.sgr.org.uk/


* Conference announcement:
Should scientists walk the talk on climate breakdown?

Unashamedly we work at the cutting edge of ethical science and technology.
That’s why we’re announcing the focus of our responsible science conference
this year as a clear and challenging example:

Scientists behaving responsibly:
Should science walk the talk on climate breakdown?
Saturday 16 November 2019; London.

To book for the conference, see:
https://www.sgr.org.uk/events/scientists-behaving-responsibly-should-science-walk-talk-climate-breakdown

Now that we live in an officially declared state of ‘climate emergency’,
everyone, government included, is being invited to adjust how they live and
work to best align ourselves with the agreed targets to prevent climate
breakdown. That includes the science community itself. In fact, it’s vital,
trusted role in communicating the crisis places even greater responsibility on
science to walk the talk of rapid transition, shifting to low carbon and low
ecological impact living and working. Our conference will explore the
necessary but challenging changes involved in making the shift. We are lucky
to have some of the best minds in the field to describe the speed and scale of
transition needed, and the opportunities created, depending on the direction
of travel that gets chosen.

Our speakers include:

- Prof Lorraine Whitmarsh - professor of environmental psychology, based at
Cardiff University, director of the new ESRC Centre for Climate Change and
Social Transformations (CAST) and an IPCC lead author.

- Farhana Yamin - founder and CEO of Track O, and a visiting professor at
University College London, teaching international environmental law and
climate change policy, she negotiated on the Kyoto Protocol for the Alliance
of Small Island States and was an adviser to the Marshall Islands at the Paris
climate talks.

- Prof Kevin Anderson - joint chair of Energy and Climate Change at the
Universities of Manchester (UK) and Uppsala (Sweden), and previously director
and deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

- Rebecca Willis - member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the
Research Councils UK Energy Programme, and an independent researcher working
with Lancaster University on the politics of climate change.

- Prof Bill McGuire - professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at
UCL, and a co-director of the New Weather Institute. His current book is
Waking the Giant: how a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and
volcanoes.

- Dr Jan Maskell - chartered psychologist, co-ordinator of SGR's school
education programmes, and chair of the Going Green Working Group of the
British Psychological Society.

TO BOOK FOR THE CONFERENCE, GO TO:
https://www.sgr.org.uk/events/scientists-behaving-responsibly-should-science-walk-talk-climate-breakdown

Like the acknowledged threats from nuclear arms which preceded it, climate
breakdown is now accepted as endangering human civilisation. The recent
special report of the IPCC on what it will take to stay below the 1.5 degree
warming target concludes that, ‘rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes
will be needed in all areas of society.’ As an organisation, and at our
conference, we plan to help identify those unprecedented changes for the
fields of science and technology, and advance what it will take to make them
happen.

Please let us know what you think of the website, or simply get in touch via
the website, email or social media below, if you would like to speak to us,
book for our conference, or become a member. Because turning this ship around
is going to take a lot of us working together.

Yours,

Stuart, Andrew, Vanessa, Jan & Phil, the team at SGR


ps – and do have a look at our new online home!


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SGR - promoting ethical science, design and technology

Website: http://www.sgr.org.uk/
Email: info at sgr.org.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ResponsibleSci
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/responsiblesci
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/scientists-for-global-responsibility-sgr-

To join or donate, go to http://www.sgr.org.uk/join

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