Best of the net | Travel | The Guardian

LINK Tripadvisor.com User reviews, candid snaps and video and basic price comparison. Best feature Its sheer wealth of five million user-generated reviews.

LINK lonelyplanet Lonely Planet publishes a raft of websites, many of them at the cutting-edge of internet travel. The Thorn Tree forums - which pioneered user-generated content a decade ago - remain second to none

LINK Boo The people behind hostelworld.com - one of the biggest backpacking accommodation sites - have repackaged themselves as all-encompassing accommodation brokers comparing a range of prices from different hotel and hostel sites. Most useful because Boo's price comparison service is also linked to over one million user generated reviews

LINK Kayak.co.uk The people behind hostelworld.com - one of the biggest backpacking accommodation sites - have repackaged themselves as all-encompassing accommodation brokers comparing a range of prices from different hotel and hostel sites. Most useful because Boo's price comparison service is also linked to over one million user generated reviews (second only to Tripadvisor).

LINK Travelsupermarket Travel Supermaket provides an increasing amount of interaction on its website. But rather than give everything over to random users, it has left its experts to marshal the user-generated content by its lively community forums, almost guaranteeing qualified advice.

LINK Where are you now "Where are you now?" is the simple question at the heart of one the most popular travellers' networking sites in Britain. WAYN has grown from nothing to 1.5m members in the UK (and 8m globally) in just four years. The site lets users let each other know where in the world they are and keep in touch - and make new travel buddies - via a handy world map.

Link to Best of the net | Travel | The Guardian

Trees v travel: campaigners take on industry over airport expansion

Environmental campaigners yesterday revealed how they are preparing to lobby a public inquiry starting tomorrow into plans to expand Stansted airport; its owner, BAA, is seeking permission to increase the number of passengers flying in and out from 25 million to 35 million a year.

Both sides recognise that the public inquiry decision could have consequences throughout Britain. Air passenger numbers are predicted to more than double in the next 20 years to 465 million and at least 20 other British airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow, Bristol and Norwich, are planning to expand.

Campaigners say the government's 2010 target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% is contradicted by its aviation policy, which is committed to new runways at Heathrow and Stansted if environmental standards are met. "At the heart of this issue is the contradiction between the government's aviation policy and its climate change policy," said Brian Ross, of the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign.

Link to Trees v travel: campaigners take on industry over airport expansion | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

Communities and Climate change

Communities on the frontline of climate change

In the Canadian Arctic, western Inuit are having trouble reaching their traditional hunting grounds as warmer springs have brought an earlier thaw. Inuit campaigners say their human rights are being violated by human-induced climate change

In Norway, Sami reindeer hunters have recorded severe changes in weather patterns that are affecting breeding cycles and destroying grazing areas. The Sami are having to alter their travel routes because of changes to prevailing winds previously used for navigation

Residents of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu claim to be the first climate change refugees, as many have been forced to flee to neighbouring New Zealand to escape rising seas. The islands, only three feet above sea level, are expected to disappear below the waves

Indigenous communities in Puerto Rico have seen plants they gather for traditional medicines disappear, making it impossible to continue healing practices

Severe droughts are forcing the nomadic Turkana people of north-west Kenya into towns and relief camps as entire herds of camels, cows and goats are being wiped out. Although they are accustomed to months of dry weather and resulting food shortages, droughts are becoming more intense and more frequent

Read the article from the Guardian about "Central American indigenous people are among first to suffer from climate change but least equipped to adapt" The Rio Coco, deep in the Nicaraguan rainforest.

Link to Hope dries up for Nicaragua's Miskito | Climate change | Guardian Unlimited Environment

Eat the seasons

There are a number of good reasons to eat more local, seasonal food:

• to reduce the energy (and associated CO2 emissions) needed to grow and transport the food we eat

• to avoid paying a premium for food that is scarcer or has travelled a long way

• to support the local economy

• to reconnect with nature's cycles and the passing of time

The majority of the UK population grow up in urban areas, with little or no awareness of when and where various foods are produced. Imports from around the world ensure that supermarket shelves look the same week in week out. Eat the seasons aims to promote an understanding of food seasons. Each week we focus on one food, which is currently in season, and share enlightening facts, useful tips and enticing recipe ideas picked from the web and our favourite books.

Link to eat the seasons | seasonal food

The Longbridge revival

MG Rover was sold in July 2005 to another Chinese car firm, Nanjing Automotive, which paid around £50m.In July 2006 Nanjing reaffirmed its commitment to produce cars at Longbridge when it purchased a 33-year lease for one third of the land at Longbridge. The company also said it would be investing around £10m in the plant, but there would be far fewer jobs than in previous years. By March this year, as the company unveiled its first China-built cars to the world's media at its factory in Nanjing, plans were well advanced in Longbridge too.

Several pre-production models of the MGTF had been completed and the old production line was being brought back into use. It is thought that around 250 people are already employed at the factory. Staff numbers are expected to rise over time as production ramps up. Nanjing has said it aims is to make 3,000 cars in the first year, rising to 12,000 by 2009. It will ultimately have the capacity to make 15,000 cars a year. The company also says it has had a good response from dealers who want to sell the new cars.

Link to BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | The Longbridge revival

LINK Car production to resume at Longbridge The Guardian 29th May