The global warming industry is imploding from scientific scandals, inconvenient weather, economic anxiety and surging popular skepticism (according to a Pew Research Center survey released in January, global warming ranks 21st out of 21 in terms of the public’s priorities).

I guess a 21st ranking is enough for Audi to spend a million + bucks to persuade you during the SuperBowl

The moral of the story is that we should welcome our new green tyrants and, if we know what’s good for us, surrender to the New Green Order.

Audi’s “Green Police” depicts an America where citizens are arrested — roughly — for even minor environmental infractions. A man at the supermarket asks for a plastic shopping bag and has his head slammed against the counter as he’s cuffed by a Green Police officer. “You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem, plastic boy,” quips the cop. When officers find a battery in the wrong suburban garbage bin, one big cop yells, “Battery! Let’s go! Take the house!”

Some eco-bloggers disliked the ad because it reinforces the association of undemocratic statism or PC bullying with environmentalism. Perhaps that’s why the New York Times dubbed it “misguided.”

Meanwhile, some conservatives didn’t like it because it makes light of what they believe is actually happening. After all, in America and Europe, the list of environmental crimes is growing at an almost exponential rate. The ad is absurd, of course, but not nearly as absurd as Audi thinks.

What was Audi’s intent? Presumably, to sell cars.

“The ad only makes sense if it’s aimed at people who acknowledge the moral authority of the green police,” writes Grist magazine’s David Roberts on the Huffington Post. The target audience, according to Roberts, are men who want to “do the right thing.” He’s certainly right that the ad isn’t aimed at people (whom he childishly mocks as “teabaggers”) who worry that their liberties are being slowly eroded.

Is it just me?  It’s kind of embarrassing to always end up at the grocery store on the 14th looking at cheesy mylar balloons, bad greeting cards with no matching envelope, and half dead roses. Those mylar balloons sure help me feel green,  yeah right… and to boot, buying anything romantic online has never happened in my world.

But going green this Valentines Day, doesn’t mean you have to suck all of the fun out of giving gifts to your sweetie! Why not turn this Hallmark holiday into an opportunity to support ethical and eco-conscious businesses with your dollars while simultaneously showing your special someone just how you feel? From sexy sustainable skivvies to gorgeous green jewelry, check out our Valentine’s Day Eco Gift Guide for everything your main squeeze wants.

You might want to TAKE YOUR BABY’S BREATH AWAY

This breathtaking heart-shaped wreath made of wisps of organic baby’s breath and preserved roses sends all of the right signals with none of the yucky pesticides or overseas shipping.

Go check out more titillating surprises. It’s worth your perusing our friends blog for more Valentines Day eco-gifts for your honey.

These ATM machines accept stacks of up to 50 cash bills of various denominations or a stack of up to 30 checks. The machines take an image of the bills and checks and immediately provide the check images to the user.

No envelopes or deposit slips are required for the deposits, and so far companywide the ATMs already have saved about 460 tons of paper or 8,331 trees.

I’m talking about Wachovia Bank, bought by Wells Fargo in 2008,  going “green” starting with 12 bank locations in Georgia.

I used to be surprised to hear GREEN NEWS from our southern folk friends, well, not anymore. Even Chattanooga is considered one of the greenest small towns in America and can prove it with the first Green LEED Certified Movie Theater.

Installation of the ATMs is expected to go nationwide rapidly.

The banks and gas stations need to also stop criminals from swiping our ATM card numbers. The hackers are like inmates and sometimes it feels like they’ve taken over the jail!

Just last week, a friend of mine went to use the local Chase ATM to get some cash money. When he walked up to the ATM something struck him as funny.

If you had a couple drinks you may not notice

He told me, “I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but the card reader didn’t look right, like it wasn’t completely attached. I grabbed and pulled at the card reader and, lo and behold, it came off! It was actually a card skimmer attached to the ATM over that actual card reader. On the back there is a battery,  flash memory card, and a mini USB port it was set up so that ATM cards would first go through the skimmer and then into the ATM itself so you’d never know the difference.

Fortunately I’d seen a news story about this sort of thing a couple of years back and have been paranoid ever since.”

If the card reader on an ATM seems like it doesn’t belong—and especially if it looks fragile or misaligned—go to another ATM. And let someone at that bank or store know that they may want to double-check their ATM for skimmers.

these are attached to ATM's everyday. BEWARE

My gut says, that the companies born in this recession will be the stuff of legend by the end of the decade.  Here’s 5 trends for small business I see coming at us like a storm on doppler radar.

5. Mastering (note: the word “mastering”, not just tapping into) social media is one of the hottest of all online trends.

I thought “Sex” was the most searched term online in 2009. NOT! Facebook” in fact was the most searched term in 2009. (Source: Experian Hitwise)

Big business has discovered what many small businesses already know: Facebook is a great place to advertise.

Hop on the social media train, Jane, because it’s headed out of the station at light speed.

4. Going Local in a green farmers market sort of way: Consumers are increasingly looking for a local angle when looking where to spend their hard-earned dollar.

Example: The explosion of farmers markets across the country. According to Entrepreneur, “there are almost 5,000 farmers markets across the country, the result of more than 5% annual growth for the past five years.”

Additionally, with people staying closer to home right now and with the green ethos growing, home is where the heart (and dollar) is.

3. Sharing vs. Shared Experiences: We are all not watching or experiencing the same thing nearly as much.

For the small business person, it is vital to realize that 1) people look for, and increasingly expect, the personal, and 2) small, localized, immediate user-created media are where the eyeballs are headed.

2. Mobile marketing is exploding. Whether it is creating the Next Big App, offering customers a real-time mobile coupon, or creating a text marketing campaign, in 2010 there will be mobile options galore for small business.

It is a new world indeed.

1. The Start-Up Economy:

The outlook is both brighter and calmer. It is calmer because things are slowly getting back to, if not normal, at least something recognizable. And it is brighter because out of the rubble, a new, vital, innovative start-up economy is being born.

We have entered the era of small business. Whereas GM president Charles Wilson once said “What’s good for the country is good for GM, and vice versa,” it can now safely be said that what is good for small business is good for the country. Consider these statistics.

Small businesses now

• Number almost 30 million
• Employ more than half of all workers
• Constitute 99.7% of all employers
• Constitute 97% of all exporters
• Create the majority of business innovations
(Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 2009)

With 10% unemployment for as far as the eye can see, with the unemployed running out of benefits, and with benefits not what they once were for the employed, start-ups of all shapes and sizes are taking root: One person shops, green home-based businesses, part-time ventures, online enterprises, high tech companies – you name it. These are the folks who, with their creative energy, drive, ingenuity, and hard work will be leading us out of this anything but great recession.