How automakers can clean up the dirty minerals that power them in the global race to electrify cars ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

A lot of leafy promises were made this past decade. Declarations were signed. Celebratory headlines were written. The world’s chainsaws, you could be forgiven for presuming, were going to let up in unison by 2020 when hundreds of deforestation-free pledges would finally kick in. Continue Reading… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Remember the sea turtle with a straw fused up its nose? The viral image that broke your heart and made you swear off straws? There’s more. On February 4, the UK’s RSPCA released the latest round of disturbing photos of wildlife – maimed seals, ducks, deer, even cats – ensnared in plastic bags, bottles and other… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

In a riot of clamouring bottles and backfiring brakes, a week’s worth of your trash gets trucked off to be recycled. It’s all very comforting to those of us who brag that we recycle everything – unless, like half the planet, your town was selling your discards to China. After years of buying over 50… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

You may have noticed my Ecoholic feed has been a little sleepy over the summer. Well, after 15 amazing years of writing for NOW Magazine every week, including 13 years of doing the Ecoholic column, I took the summer mostly off to reboot, play, meditate in the mountains of Guatemala, free my dad’s ashes in the… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Six months into Donald Trump’s dizzying presidency, Naomi Klein’s back with a new book to shed some light on the real shell game at work. I chat with her about Trump, Trudeau and the fate of the planet – and why the world needs utopic thinking more than ever. ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

I didn’t intend to make this Earth Day issue entirely about lists and lists of amazing women using their skills and their platforms to make this world a better place. But, hot damn, there are so many women kicking butt in all corners and fields of the green movement. I actually started looking into the status of women… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

  Look around the room you’re in right now. Ninety percent of absolutely everything that surrounds you came by ship. What’s the big deal? Isn’t that better than coming by carbon-spewing planes? You’ll rethink that after seeing the documentary Freightened, screening this weekend at the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival. I wrote a short piece on it with… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

What do your gym shorts, cat food and oil tankers have in common? They’re all making a mess of the planet’s life-sustaining oceans. Here’s how you can do your part at the grocery store, in your laundry room and when tweeting your MP to prevent rampant overfishing, oil spills, microplastics and climate change. ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Now that a growing chorus of birds are belting out interpretive covers of “Let the sunshine in” and spring is officially making its budding presence known, I figured it’s about time I should do the same. I’ve been laying low here in blogland since my dad passed away on Valentine’s Day. It was an emotional winter for my family. Letting go, saying… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Mark your calendars – 2016 isn’t just bound to be the hottest year on record, it’s also cooking up all sorts of (mostly) planet-friendly ideas Goodbye, paleo diet; hello, climatarians and reducetarians The New York Times recently talked up “climatarian” as a top new food term to describe anyone whose prime dietary goal is reversing… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Planet lovers aren’t always an optimistic bunch, but there’s reason to pause and appreciate this year’s many highs on the environmental front. 1. Pope’s planetary revolution The most consciousness-shifting moment of the year: pope Francis’s 40,000-word treatise Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home. He urged the planet’s 1.25 billion Catholics as well as world leaders… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

This is one mother of a week. Not just for the thousands gathering at nearly 2,500 events in over 175 countries this weekend to march, rally, pray, meditate and generally light the way for climate action. Or for the 147 world leaders gathering under one roof in Paris on Monday to talk about tackling the forces of climate change that are… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

No matter which way you lean politically, most Canadians care deeply about the environment and are tired of seeing it treated like trash. I’ve talked to conservative greens that are just as fed up with the feds as Green party greens. A strong majority of the country, blue, red, orange or green, wants tougher action on climate… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

For World Peace Day (September 21) the UN marked the annual event with calls for all warring parties to put down their weapons. Elsewhere, thousands gathered at 1,300 events around the planet to sit in silence and meditate for the cause. And Burger King, Wendy’s and Denny’s? Well, they combined ingredients from five different competing fast food chains in one giant burger for… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Somewhere on a small island in southern Greece I have a cousin, twice removed, that’s a retired Orthodox priest. That’s about as close to organized religion as I’ve ever gotten. That and the occasional church wedding or funeral. Though after reading the Pope’s encyclical on caring for our common home, I’m tempted to find a pew somewhere and give… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Looking for a little post-Earth Day inspiration? One, if you’re in Toronto, line up to go see the documentary How to Change the World, on the early days of Greenpeace, led by the charismatic journalist-turned-activist, the late, great Bob Hunter. It blew me away so I did something I don’t normally do, I wrote a film review. The film… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Hey gang! Hope you had an awesome Earth Day! I figured there is no better day/week/month to launch my newly revamped website. It merges ecoholic.ca, ecoholicnation.com and adriavasil.com all in one cozy little corner of the web. There’s tons of stuff crammed under one green roof. Under Columns, you can follow the weekly Ecoholic column that I’ve been writing for… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

Journalists probably shouldn’t cry during interviews but I came very close to balling my eyes out when I was interviewing Inuit activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier. She was passing through Toronto to promote her new book, The Right to Be Cold, and I jumped at the opportunity to have a leisurely meal with her at… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

What is it they say about hindsight? That it’s 20/20? The more distance I get on 2014, the more its green highs and lows come into focus. I wrote up my Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2014 in the last Ecoholic column, covering everything from the fall of butterflies and bees to the rise of climate marches and… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸

I’ll admit I was pretty giddy about interviewing the godfather of Canadian environmentalism. I’d met David Suzuki briefly in passing once and the man officially endorsed my first book, Ecoholic, but we’d never sat down and just talked. When I finally got the chance to do so while he was in Toronto for his final cross-Canada… ◂ReadPreviousNext Post▸