Green Temple Float - LoveFest 2008 San Francisco

Saturday, Temple took its show on the road.  LoveFest is an electronic music parade.  Instead of watching from the side lines, spectators become participants and follow the floats dancing down the streets as they go by.  This year is the first time that Temple made a float for the fest.  It was called Green Temple and was complete with Temple Arches, Sound System, Solar Panels, Plants, bamboo.  We gave out Music that we created in our Studios at Temple Music Group.  Shirts, reusable shopping bags and seed packets.  Props to Dutch, Sen Sei, Steve, Xavi and the whole temple team for making it happen and look good.

The concept of taking the party to the streets is core to overcoming our perception that urban and nature are separate.    As of 2008, more than half of the worlds population live in cities.  Cities were only designed for people with no consideration for the natural world.  We need to rethink this or we will continue down a path that will dehabilitate our planets ability to provide the the support systems which enable us to live on Earth.  I am not saying that simply having a party in the street is going to cure us and our ways, but its a start.  We need to realize that just because we paved the ground and erected mega structures that we are still connected to the natural world.  Thank you wonderful people of San Francisco for allowing this to happen and for participating.  

Green Laces to show you are a fan of the Planet

Greenlaces.org aims to unify environmentally conscious individuals and leverage athletics to reduce our environmental impact. Think Live Strong but shoe laces and instead of for cancer it for the environment.

The laces are made from recycled bottles. Look for them on Olympic athletes for several countries. But they not just for professionals we are all athletes and we can sport the green laces while at the gym, our kids teams just about anywhere.

The other component is that all who wear the laces are encouraged to make a promise to the planet on Greenlaces.org ... something that you will do and every time you tie your laces you are reminded of that promise. There are lists of promises athletes have made if you need suggestions.

Look to see this movement spread around the globe.

Food Crisis

Situation: The world is in a food crisis. Rising cost of oil is causing rapidly increasing food prices. Increased population is resulting in more mouths to feed. The UN gathered world leaders in Rome recently and they determined that world food production would have to increase 50% in the next 40 years.

How we got here: Food used to be produced locally everywhere that a society grew. Now food is distributed is by industrial farming then shipping the food great distances. Because of economies of scale and agricultural processes local food producers could not compete with the low cost of the imported food.

Solutions: Keep producing more and more food to be given as aid -or- Educate and enable local people to plant their own local produce. In America during World War II as much as 80% of homes had "victory garden". A patriotic self sufficient solution to food shortage due to the war. Surface area vegetation - planting urban surfaces of a building, be it roof tops or vertical walls.

Actions: Our building is in the urban environment and we do not have access to dirt or space to plant so we have begun experimenting with vertical gardens. We are looking to install a geodesic dome greenhouse on our roof and produce food for our Restaurant Prana using hydroponic techniques.

SF Citizen Unite Around Oil Spill

The Bay Area was dealt an environmental disaster and the concerned citizens of San Francisco took matters into their own hands instead of waiting for the help to arrive. Local surfers and kite boarders Darin Rosas, Kathleen Egan and Byron Cleary who live at and spend a lot of time on the coast saw globs of oil wash up on their beach. They started to collecting it before it could be washed back out to the sea. They used their personal email lists to crowd-source and set up a blog to share information and formed Kill the Spill. Before agencies had began cleaning on Ocean Beach they had amassed a volunteer army of over 500 people. Since the bunker oil that was spilled in the Bay is a hazardous waste the agencies said that it could only be handled by people who have been Haz Mat trained. Due to the large amount of volunteers that had already stepped up Kill the Spill got the agencies to set up training sessions. The agencies had never had civilians want to clean up hazardous waste before. As of Saturday November 17th over 1,400 volunteers have been trained and are ready to be deployed where needed. I have never been prouder to live and be apart of the amazing community that is San Francisco.

Kill the Spill had to make their own signs because people unaware of
the spill were playing with their children and dogs in the toxic material.

Temple Nightclub is offering free admittance to anyone over 21 with the volunteer badge.

Should we wait till the next disaster? Who better to be trained first responders than the local people. We can set up communication channels and train willing citizens in search and rescue for an Earthquake and not have to wait for authorities to arrive to help us. I'm in.

For more about Kill the Spill and Updates please refer to the following:
LA Times Article
Surfer Magazine
Kill the Spill
Information Blog

The event was a great success. About 850 people came at noon to hear John Edwards speak. Here is a picture with some of Temple's staff.

John Edwards coming to the Zen Compound

John Edwards is coming to speak at Temple August 1st at 12:15pm. We are very excited to provide a stage for John Edwards and offer the people of San Francisco a chance to learn about his campaign platform.

Tickets and Event Details - http://johnedwards.com/events/