Defra and the Natural Environment Research Council have announced funding for a five-year, ~£12 million study into the effects of climate change on Britain's seas. The research programme will focus on the North-East Atlantic (including European shelf and slope), Antarctic and Arctic Oceans and will aim to: Improve estimates of ocean CO2 uptake and associated acidification. Evaluate the impact of acidification on ocean biogeochemical processes.

Into a Warming World The report considers the following: How do we adapt to the warming that is headed our way, no matter what we do now? How will the world deal with the fact that the climate burden will fall heaviest on countries whose contributions to climate change have been the most modest?

The medical journal, The Lancet, has published a special issue that looks at the health impacts of climate change mitigation policies in four areas: agriculture; transport; the built environment; and electricity generation. All the papers are open access and can be downloaded here. A paper on food and agriculture is included:

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.

The Marine Climate Impacts Partnership has published its latest annual report card. The report card aims to address/summarise the following: What is the current state of scientific understanding of marine climate change in our oceans and seas? What changes have been observed and what could happen in the future? How much of this is hard fact and how much is interpretation? A few key observations are as follows: