First was the news on August 29th about the two sailors who sailed from California to Hawaii using a raft made of plastic junk and who on their journey, found plastic floating both in the ocean and also in the fish that they caught for food during their journey.  The video of their arrival can be seen here:

Second , on Wednesday august 27th employees at Lush body care products in San Francisco’s Union Square were making a statement about the over usage of packaging by baring their bodies to local pedestrians. See the rest of the article here: Story LINK

Third came the radio interview last week on PRI’s The World with a particular reporter who has been living without plastic for a month and chronicling it on a blog.  You can see the complete story below: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7508321.stm

Last but not least was the story of a Eugene Caldwell who died last week as a result of being hit by a runaway San Francisco police horse who according to this San Francisco Chronicle article was spooked due to the following:  “The incident occurred after a white plastic bag being tossed by the wind caught in the animal’s bridle”.  If this story was not a fitting yet tragic ending to this list of plastic blurbs, then what had to top this all off was that Eugene used to work for Procter and Gamble, perhaps one of the largest manufacturers of products that use “plastic” packaging (the focus of  first 3 articles). I didn’t make any of this up, I just experienced them in a succession and have chosen to share them with you.  Care to share what’s conjured up for you in reading these stories? Do you see a message?

Here is the link to the full San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/31/BA6L12LM89.DTL&hw=runaway+police+horse&sn=001&sc=1000

If you’ve looked at my list of favorite books on the site you’ll see “The power of now”, one of my all-time favorite books. As someone who never watches Oprah, I have to say that it came as a surprise to me to see these two icon’s come together for the start of a weekly event this past Monday covering Eckhart’s newest book “A new earth- Awakening to your life’s purpose”. I have to applaud them both for creating this forum. Oprah calls this the most important and exciting thing she’s ever done in her life. It’s a 10 week, live webcast, every Monday evening starting March 3rd where users can participate via email and a live video conference with Oprah and Eckhart. I never though I’d ever endorse Oprah, but today, I would encourage anyone who feels ready and interested in learning a more present and authentic way of being in the world to check this out. Although Eckhart can be seen in person or on sites such as Youtube, I feel the combination of his presence on Oprah’s event shows the global hunger for connection to something greater than ourselves. The shear numbers who attended this event and the fact that his books “A new earth” and “The power of now” are at #1 and #2 on the New York Times best seller list for paperback, point to the fact that people are interested in topics other than Tom Cruise and more importantly that they are actively participating in the much needed shift in global consciousness. The first event drew 500-700k simultaneous viewers from approx. 140 countries. They claim this is the largest event of its kind hosted on line. It’s not exactly the record-breaking Live Earth concert that last year drew 55Million stream in 24 hours but it represents a great hope for humanity. To get more info and see the first segment go to the links below.

(Update – The links on Oprah.com (or even opraheckhart.com) don’t seem to work…even thought the links and downloads were free at the time but they are no longer available there – most likely due to contractual reasons.   I recommend you do a search on youtube for “Eckhart Tolle Oprah New Earth”… Good luck!)

Link to Eckhart Tolle’s Website:

FYI, in case you are in the San Francisco Bay area, Sunday March 16, 2008 is the only local showing. Check out www.tiburonfilmfestival.com

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” is an 80 minute documentary film about forty of the world’s most innovative thinkers who travel to India in the Himalayan Mountains to meet with the Dalai Lama to solve many of the world’s problems. What happened was surprising and unexpected.

You can read more about “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” including watching three different trailers for the film, here: www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

The mother of the first post was a conversation I had with a good friend of mine during a green/sustainability event in December 2007 at the law firm of Hansen and Bridgett in San Francisco where Taylor Francis a student of Al Gore was giving a presentation on global warming. The conversation with my friend, who happens to be a sustainability consultant, centered around eating meat and it’s impact on global warming. His contention was that we needed to decrease or even eliminate our consumption of meat in order to reduce the CO2 emissions (Methane given off by cows and deforestation of land for cow pastures). He felt that changing our diet would be no issue given that many people today are happy and healthy being vegan. In fact Taylor Francis, during his presentation which was created by Al Gore and his team, included a suggestion for everyone to cut down on their meat consumption. After the story about the recalled beef hit the news, I not only felt absolute sadness for the animals that were miss-treated and needlessly slaughtered but I also felt that this bit of news may further increase the anti-cow farming sentiment from some in the green/sustainability movement.

Knowing how unhealthy most beef in the world is raised and farmed it comes as no surprise to me that it is also not the most environmentally sustainable. In order to have a sound judgment about meat consumption, we need to look at this practice both universally and holistically. I feel CO2 reduction is not a justification for people to go out and stop consuming animal food. To look at this issue consciously we can’t unleash blanket statement such as the ones that I heard that evening. If in our discourse, we continue to bundle together all cows, all cow farmers, all cow farming practices, and all our collective bad eating habits and diets, then we are surely going to come up with conclusions that are at best erroneous, and at worst counter-productive. Can reducing our consumption of meats reduce the impact on atmospheric CO2, absolutely. Is it not a more conscious act to reduce our consumption based on our understanding of our body and soul’s needs and genuine and heartfelt respect for animals vs. through fears of global warming? Specially if both routes have the potential to bring about the same desired effect of reducing CO2 emissions?

Our intentions, positive or negative, can play a major role in all that we do and create in this world so it is fitting now to see a product such as chocolate being infused with positive intentions and its efficacy put to scientific rigor. These chocolates which have been mediated on have been scientifically shown(With the help of IONS) to bring about positive mental state in those who consume them. Imagine everything else that we have the ability to change by imbuing them with our positive energy, the products we make, the food we cook or grow, and clearly the gifts we give. The sky is the limit. If you’re wondering if I’m going to be doing that with everything that I do, the answer is no.. but I hope to do more tomorrow than I do today. I hope you enjoy this video, and if you’re in the market, the products from www.intentionalchocolate.com .. I’m curious to know how they taste.