OUR national obsession - the weather - gets its fair share of web space and more and more information can be found online. At the Met Office official site, www.meto.govt.uk, the national weather forecast can be read with the help of colourful graphics.

Visitors also get a view of the world-wide weather. Those experiencing flooding this week will sympathise with the people of Baguio in the Philippines where 709mm of rain has fallen as a result of Typoon Xangsane.

The floods closer to home are detailed at the Environment Agency's official site www.environment-agency.gov.uk. The agency gives advice on coping with flooding and the risk of flooding alongside other environmental information.

Weather for the region is also available at this website www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk and includes the forecasts for the next few days.

For weather information which also includes air quality, shipping news and official alerts, the web site www.informationchannel.co.uk provides handy links to official sources for the information.

The changeable weather has prompted much discussion about global warming and pollution.

Both subjects are very close to the hearts of Greenpeace at www.greenpeace.org who this week called on the Government to act on the causes of extreme weather.

Another campaigning group, Friends of the Earth atwww.foe.org gives details of its work in improving the environment and tackling global issues.

And cleaning up world wide pollution is also the subject of the latest Mission Antartica led by North-East explorer Robert Swan.

Its attempts to remove harmful rubbish can be followed atwww.missionantarctica.com and will also be detailed over the coming weeks in The Northern Eco at www.echobusiness.co.uk/pub/eco.