Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

BBC Bloom

The BBC have launched a new website aimed at encouraging people to make the right choices and lower their carbon emissions. 'Bloom' suggests actions you can take in every area of life to be more climate conscious. You just choose the action you're going to take, plant a 'seed' on your page, and watch the resulting flowers grow. Or bloom, I suppose.

You can search the actions based on easiness (the easiest is washing clothes at 30 degrees), cheapness (a cheap option, for example is to 'use your dress sense' to make your existing clothes last longer, while a more expensive action is to invest in an electric car), carbon rating (installing a biomass boiler wins on this front), and popularity on the site.

The site also aggregates BBC news on climate change-related issues, or you can search for audio or video content.

You can create a login for yourself in order to save your actions and watch your collection of flowers grow, and the fact that you can see what other users have been doing adds a nice sense of community. The site's in beta at the moment, so there aren't a lot of other 'bloomers' to compare yourself to, but it will be interesting to see how the site develops.

VISIT BLOOM AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK.....

Vote for Sustrans Connect2

Are you bored of Big Brother, and couldn't care less about the 'celebrities' in the jungle? Well here's a TV vote with a difference - one that can actually make a positive difference to YOUR local area. The People's 50 Million lottery giveaway is a unique TV show in which viewers' votes will decide which of four environmental projects will be the lucky recipient of Big Lottery funding.

One project, Sustrans Connect2, is a UK-wide initiative that aims to improve local travel in 79 communities around the country by creating new walking and cycling routes to encourage sustainable transport. The project really does have something for everyone, with 6 million people living within 1 mile of a Connect2 scheme.

If Connect2 is successful in the television vote, some 12 projects in the region will benefit from funding, including improvements along the Bridgewater Canal in Sale and Stretford, and a new bridge over the River Goyt linking Marple and Stockport. Check out the other Northwest schemes here.

You can vote online for Connect2 HERE from now until 12 noon on 10th December, and by phone from 9am on 7th December.

What are you waiting for? It'll do much more good than evicting Christopher Biggins................

Blog Action Day

Did you know that today is Blog Action Day? Yes, October 15th is the day when thousands of bloggers will be writing posts about environmental issues, with the aim of bringing them to the world's attention. It's interesting that the event should fall on the day before the Mersey Basin Campaign sets off for London to speak at an event called Web 2.0 - The What? The Why? The How? We'll be speaking to third sector communications folk about our recent experiences with blogging, podcasting, facebook and myspace etc - and hopefully meeting some other environmental organisations who are venturing into the same areas as we are. Over the year we've encountered lots of interesting blogs - for example Save the Ribble - a great example of how a blog can be used to focus attention on an environmental issue, but in our area, we still don't see a lot of environmental blogging at organisational level - we'd love a few new blogs to link up with, alongside our neighbours, Groundwork Northwest. In fact, I'm off to check out the Blog Action Day site to see if there's anyone we can link up with.....

An alternative Liverpool skyline

Liverpool's iconic waterfront may be instantly recognisable, a world heritage site, AND the home of the internationally famous Liver Birds, but it seems that's not enough for some people. Regeneration company Liverpool Vision have developed a new, interactive website that lets you play around with one of the Northwest's most dramatic landscapes, and add iconic buildings from all over the world to Liverpool's existing assets. Fancy an Empire State Building on the Albert Dock, or a Statue of Liberty on the Pier Head? It's all up to you at My Liverpool Skyline. Here's our creation - as you'll see, we've gone for an understated approach. Now then, who's going to examine the planning issues for our version?

My Abodo

We thought you'd like to see the fantastic eco-house we've created using My Abodo, an educational website created by our friends at Delib. The site is designed to encourage schoolchildren to design environmentally-friendly homes, and to make them think about the choices we make in our real-life abodes. It's fun for adults too, of course. Here's our greener-than-green attempt:

International Slavery Museum opens in Liverpool

Today marks the opening of National Museums Liverpool's newest venue, the International Slavery Museum, which is based inside the Merseyside Maritime Museum at the Albert Dock. The opening date marks Slavery Remembrance Day - 23rd August - and the year 2007 is also significant, being the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.

Information about the new museum can be found on its homepage.

Here's an article which has appeared in the New York Times, showing the level of interest in the latest addition to Liverpool's waterfront from the other side of the Atlantic.

MIMP my ride - get voting!

Ten finalists have been chosen in Manchester Is My Planet's bumper sticker slogan competition - and YOU can decide who wins. See the slogans and cast your vote here. Come on, unleash your inner Simon Cowell.....

Mashable's Green Toolbox

Mashable, the social networking blog, has kindly compiled a Green Toolbox - a guide to online tools and sites that will help you be that little bit greener. Enjoy....

MIMP green bumper stickers...

Another competition for the creative types amongst you....

Manchester is my planet are calling for people to come up with an original and catchy slogan for their new bumper stickers, designed to encourage people to drive less and do their bit to cut carbon emissions. A state-of-the-art bike is on offer for the author of the winning slogan, as well as annual bus passes, and VIP tickets to the Warehouse Project's latest bash. Click here for more details, and to enter the competition.

So, get your thinking caps on and start scribbling. And remember, my other car is carbon neutral.......

60 seconds to save the earth: Video competition

Fancy winning an environmental Oscar? Then this might just be the contest for you. Al Gore's Current TV, in tandem with the Alliance for Climate Protection, has launched a competition looking for short films that show how people are acting against climate change, or encourage others to do something. The Ecospot contest is asking for 15, 30 or 60-second movies which either showcase individual actions or seek to motivate change. 20 semi-finalist films will be chosed by judges including Cameron Diaz, Orlando Bloom, George Clooney and Sam Mendes - and the winner will then be chosen by the public on Current TV's website. Good luck, and happy clapperboards......