After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Ben West

Empowering local alternatives is the next essential #PeoplesClimate mobilization

What an amazing weekend. It was so empowering watching the livestream of the estimated 400,000 people on the streets of New York Sunday morning marching for action on climate...
Ben WestSep 25th, 2014

Do Kinder Morgan and Shell’s Canadian reps really support moving beyond fossil fuel?

The argument used by Kinder Morgan seems to me designed to obscure the real consequences of building new tar sands export pipelines.
Ben WestOct 21st, 2013

Kinder Morgan an odd choice for local green business event

I’m more than a little surprised at the choice of Kinder Morgan’s Canadian president Ian Anderson as the keynote speaker for Thursday’s Surrey Board of Trade luncheon honouring...
Ben WestSep 16th, 2013

BC Election: voting for the people and the planet

Last week Van Jones, the founder of the green jobs advocacy group Green for All, was arrested at a rally organized to protest against a major American coal company. What's interesting about this is...
Ben WestMay 13th, 2013

Burning garbage is unsustainable and unimaginative

Last week, B.C. took a big step away from sustainability when Environment Minster Terry Lake rubber-stamped a plan to build a gigantic “mass burn” waste incinerator.
Ben WestAug 2nd, 2011