Just got back from a couple weeks away from civilization and I swear I must have caught something. The fever's passed but I'm pretty sure I'm still hallucinating. At least that's how I've felt catching up on the eco news. First a bill looking to ban one of the top families of chemicals on my hate-on list (phthalates) passed third reading in parliament. What happened here? I'm used to Canadian politicians dragging their mukluks in the slush on this front, making loads of promises to investigate chemicals but sputtering out on the delivery.

Now, if all goes well...

Adria's got her new Ecocast up! She covers this week's topic: The green scoop on the Red Rocket – measuring up public transit.

Adria's third and last Ecocast from her London travels is now up! Check it out!

Ecocast (UK 3) [2.37 MB, mp3]

Adria's second-of-three Ecocasts from her UK trip is now up! Check it out!

Ecocast (UK 2) [3.3 MB, mp3]

NOW's Adria Vasil visits London, UK., and gives her view of the green scene across the pond!

Ecocast (UK - Day 1) [992kb, mp3]

Another year, another concert out to save our souls. Don't get me wrong, I love anyone that dreams in peace signs and rainbows and I also love a good mainstream rock out session now and then but the cynic within couldn't help but sneer a little about Al Gore's eco fest. How much good could the Live Earth concerts do? I mean, did Live 8 really "make poverty history"? Did Live Aid end African famines? What about the struggling farmers helped by Farm Aid? Still struggling no doubt (though at least those guys keep the message alive with a...

Sorry Ecoholic readers, I had a mental lapse in last week's column and called methane the stinkiest of greenhouse gases. I was clearly high on some chemicals offgassing from my desk at work. Methane is in fact odourless.

(with apologies to readers without pets. I swear the next blog will be entirely pet-free)

Who knew feeding your in-house animals could be so complicated? Or guilt-inducing. I was floored when pet food industry critic and vet Elizabeth Hodgkins berated me for giving my cat dry food while researching my article last week. Of course, I tried to squirm out of any culpability. "But the bag says it's all natural. Organic even. How could it be bad?"

Looking back at that conversation, it's as though everything I ever preached about greenwashing and the flagrant abuse of the word natural...

As soon as you start approaching Vancouver you know you’re up for a different vibe. There’s no downtown expressway to separate its people from their waterfront (a la the Gardiner). No parkway to scar up vast swaths of greenspace (hello, DVP). The dense treescape reaches high above storefronts (unlike the scrawny excuse for urban foliage that Toronto forgets to water). Oh, and yoga mats and herbal mists are offered to every guest at my Robson St. hotel. Note to self: why haven’t I been here before?

The sky is bursting with sunlight and the whole town seems to be celebrating...

I hop off the train in Ottawa to find a perfect day. The sun is shining, the sky cloudless - and there’s water dripping down my leg. What the? My evidently poorly sealed water canister has completely emptied itself in my bag, all over my marked up copy of Ecoholic, not to mention a week’s worth of business cards and eco flyers from the road. Nothing a good air drying and a margarita can’t fix.

I toss my bag at the hotel, wrap the book in a towel then head out to eclectic Byward market to cozy up to Ottawa’s...

We've received numerous letters and calls from trail users in the Crothers' Flats about Kyla Dixon-Muir's piece in our April 26-May 2 issue. We understand concerns raised by some readers that the article tarnished with a broad brush bikers in the Crothers' Flats who keep to the managed trails.

But clearly, others who ride the Flats love their stunts. And judging by the elaborate obstacles built, are quite handy with a chainsaw.

The Don is a resource for all to enjoy, although it's the feeling of some nature lovers that ecologically sensitive areas like Crothers (and yes, the Flats,...

I always thought dawn was the end of a good night, not the start of a new day, which might explain my phobia of Breakfast Television. And despite my vocal warnings about the possibility of finding drool on my chin and muttering nonsensical eco gibberish if I were ever to be interviewed before 9am, here I am dragging my butt out of a hotel bed at first light and making my way to Global TV in Montreal. Why did I give up coffee again?

The interview is over before I can even start sending earlobe signals to my family in...

Rolling into the weekend, I was revved up for a little book signing, maybe a little interviewing, but I had no clue I would end up chilling with two living icons of the environmental movement in one day, let alone in one room. Okay, so we weren’t exactly chilling per se. But we were in the same room.

Packing up at the office on Friday, NOW editor Alice Klein offers me a ticket to join her at the Al Gore talk at the Green Living Show the next morning and I jumped. The cynical environmentalist within that keeps a watchful...