In May the DTI published Renewable Energy Attitudes and Awareness Research which examines people's awareness of and attitudes to renewable energy. Generally awareness of renewables tends to be high (although there is less awareness of options such as biomass. Most people are in favour of renewable energy This said only a third of respondents said they would be happy to live within 5km of a wind farm

Defra has published a number of studies resulting from its 2005-2006 cross-cutting research programme on Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change. Several studies were commissioned as part of this programme, each with a remit to explore a particular aspect of pro-environmental behaviour change. A summary of the main study under taken by the University of Westminster and entitled Promoting Pro-Environmental Behaviour: Existing Evidence to Inform Better Policy Making can be downloaded as can a number of supplementary papers.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have published a map in the journal Nature (Nature 438, 310-317 (17 November 2005) Impact of regional climate change on human health, Patz JA, Campbell-Lendrum D, Hollowa T and Foley, JA) showing that the worst effects of climate change will be felt in the poorest and least polluting countries. The World Health Organisation estimates that the warming and precipitation trends due to anthropogenic climate change of the past 30 years already claim over 150,000 lives annually.

Climate change may not be good news for the Californian wine industry, according to a paper published in the open-access journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America). California is the UK's third largest source of wine after Australia (no 1) and France (no 2). An extract from the paper states: ‘…we estimate that potential premium winegrape production area in the conterminous United States could decline by up to 81% by the late 21st century.

For an analysis of nitrogen flows through the UK economy see Nitrogen UK. The report notes: ‘Of the 3.4Mt reactive nitrogen that we either create or produce per annum, over 1Mt is returned to the environment without any benefit being realised from it.'

New maps by researchers at the University of Wisconsin show how our demand for agricultural land has grown dramatically over the last three hundred years; from covering 7% of the global land area in 1700 to around 40% today.