Who is EnviroWoman? No it's not some green suited mascot for environmental prudence. It is a local Vancouver woman who is trying to reduce the amount of plastic she uses in her life. She has written about her progress in this endeavor over the months in the social networking site ChangeEverything. For this she has won the site's "viva la revolution" contest. Other well known sites have taken note as well, most significantly the environmental site Treehugger, which has a huge following.

Her blog posts are funny and inspiring, and makes me think twice about all the plastic I use in my daily life. I can definitely learn something from her example.

Third place in the same contest was Beyond Robson's own Degan Beley who has been detailing progress she is making in her goal to run a marathon in November. Way to go Degan!

Vancouver's Lindsay O'Donnell, 23, has made it to the finals of a contest to find the "Sexiest Vegetarian Alive" put on by PETA and the website GoVeg.com. O'Donnell beat out hundreds of other entrants to make it into the top 10 females in the contest where visitors to the GoVeg website vote on their favorites. In the past celebrity winners of the contest have been Kristen Bell of "Veronica Mars" and Prince, but this year GoVeg decided to open the contest up to include the vegetarian boy and girl next door.

Lindsay is an avid athlete who enjoys snowboarding, biking, yoga, weightlifting, baseball, and volleyball. She's even gearing up for a triathlon later this year! Perhaps she's taken a cue from Carl Lewis, one of the world's greatest athletes, who says that his performance dramatically improved after he went vegetarian. Says Lindsay about her preference for men who forgo flesh: "It's far sexier to see a guy cuddling or playing with an animal than to see him biting into one." Reads her bio on the GoVeg.com website.

Voting is continuing at the website so get over there and vote for our local green girl!

Climate Change is the issue at the tip of everyone's tongue these days. Maybe it is the fact that the Conservative government seems to believe that it is, in the words of Stephen Harper before he was PM; "a money sucking socialist scheme" (he was talking about the Kyoto Accord). Or maybe it is that the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" finally laid out the facts in a way that couldn't be disputed (though some try).

But if you want to raise your voice and join others to try and do something about climate change, one thing you could do is attend a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery this Saturday, April 14th, from 11 to 2.

Organized by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee as part of their "Step It Up Canada" campaign, the rally will feature speakers and live music. So come out and add your voice to the call to get Ottawa to support the Kyoto treaty and tell Stephen Harper to get out of his SUV! (Wouldn't you like to see Stephen Harper riding a bike to work?).

The Co-operative Auto Network (CAN) is presently embroiled in a battle with US companies to retain and expand it's contract with Vancouver City Hall for it's shared cars.

Presently CAN provides access to it's vehicles to several City employees and has done so for the past nine years, additionally they have been looking to expand this service for the last two years. Now the City is planning to expand it's fleet to 40 vehicles and has opened up the contract to competition. Two American companies have expressed interest; Zipcar and Flexcar are both preparing bids. CAN believes that it is somewhat unfair that they have to compete with these American private interests when they are a non-for-profit co-operative, nonetheless they have said their bid will be very competitive.

In London they are everywhere; peering down on you. When you know you are being watched you get this strange feeling (at least I do), like when you are driving alongside a cop, or being watched by security guards in a store; that nervousness, even though you know you are not doing anything wrong, you still get butterflies.

They are security cameras, and on my recent trip to London I was amazed at how many I saw. Post 9-11 and post London bombings (and the continuing alleged plots) I guess they are necessary. But do they make a difference? And now the city is thinking about putting security cameras on the Granville mall in an effort to reduce the general hooliganism and all out assaults that occur there. But will cameras make the difference? Or would an increased police presence work better? It all comes down to one word really: Deterrence.

The Wedgewood Hotel and Spa has entered into a contract with Planktos Inc. to purchase carbon offsets sufficient to make the hotel "carbon neutral".

The Wedgewood has estimated that it produces 500 tonnes of CO2 annually, and has purchased a ten-year supply of credits from Planktos, enough for 5000 tonnes of output. Planktos Inc. is a company that participates in carbon sequestering, removing carbon from the air by restoring habitats on the land and at sea. At sea they restore plankton populations, and on land the work to restore forests. In return for this work they are able to sell carbon offsets to carbon producers, such as the Wedgewood Hotel.