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.

• How green can that sink be on a Toilet? A toilet with a sink on top of the tank. When I was waking up and rubbing the greenies out of my eyes while making coffee, I heard Sink Positive. Isn't that cute. What is it? I was still rubbing my eyes to see if I was hallucinating. No,......
• Health Benefits to drinking Alkaline Water? by Jerry Hart When you get pneumonia or a really bad bug do you change anything in your less than green life? When I checked myself into Emergency a few days ago, the M.D.  diagnosed me with pneumonia and then went holistic on me by sending me to a Compound Pharmacy. I thought I was......
• Greenest Cities in the World with Jerry Hart on Smart Green Travel on Green 960 AM San Francisco [/caption] Who's recycling more and "trashing" less? Smart Green Travel visits the top green cities and few runners up who have made the most impressive strides toward eco-friendliness and sustainability. Factors are air, the climate, our health, the landscape and the habitat. When a city accepts as a mandate its......
• Eco-tunnel help turtles cross a Florida road I learned that $3.4 million of federal stimulus money is being used to build a tunnel to help turtles cross a Florida road. Look at that face. How could you not spend a few million bucks on a face like that? Do we hire a couple green turtle loving people......
• I heard it through the Green Grapevine on Smart Green Travel with Jerry Hart on Green 960 AM San Francisco American's pair wine with food, while Europeans pair wine with life. The numbers speak for themselves. Whether you're like me, a novice with wine, or a connoisseur, the FACT IS: Europeans drink 28 gallons of wine per year, per person. American's drink 3 gallons of wine per year. What can......

• Stop Worrying, The Planet Will Be Fine... It's us that I am worried about. It's true, most of the living things on the planet are going to take a mean beating if things continue to warm up as every credible scientist on earth seems to believe, but the planet itself will be perfectly fine...it will still......
• 9 Easy Ways to Green Your Home Greening up your home is actually a lot simpler than spending thousands on solar panels for your roof, and does not have to involve composting or growing all of your own food if you do not want it to. You do not have to be a hippy tree-hugger to want......
• Climate Change and Politcs: Global Warming Continues Due to Too Much Hot Air? by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com Climate Change and Politcs: Global Warming Continues Due to Too Much Hot Air? All the way back in January 2004 Sir David A. King, the Government's then chief scientific adviser, described global warming, and the climate change that it drives, as a greater threat to the world......
• Environmental Benefits of Hybrid Electric Vehicles There are a number of environmental benefits associated with hybrid electric vehicles. Understanding what they are is one of the keys to getting the most out of your knowledge of these vehicles. Gasoline, when it is burned, is capable of producing large amounts of carbon dioxide, which is the major......
• Great Article On Why CFL Bulbs Are Better At Green Options. I just came across this great article over at Green Options that does a great job of explaining why CFL bulbs are WAAAY better thank regular old light bulbs. From the article: How CFLs save money and global warming pollution Turning on a light taps electricity from your local utility.......

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.

• Environmentally we know that less is always more by Jerry Hart You may have missed the GREENFAIR blog post on Hart of Green on Monday about how green my soul has become following my fellowship with the movers and shakers of the green movement.  Every vendor was incredible, and not in that fake American way, rather, very ecologically aware companies who......
• The Green Police Eco-Whacky Audi spot during the Super Bowl, by Jerry Hart 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......
• Ho Ho HOLY COW when there's no Cash for Green Gifts If you think Green gifts are cheesy and expensive, well, keep that skepticism front and center and drop down to the end of this post for some UN-green holiday gifts from our friends at Best Buy. If you really need to cut the Ho Ho HOLY COW No Cash for......
• National Geographic's 411 on Family Eco-Vacations plus Waterfalls no one ever told you existed in Yosemite on Smart Green Travel on Green 960 AM San Francisco Find where waterfalls rarely visited in Yosemite are located and easy to walk too. And, I believe I've found the most perfect 3 day Family Staycations for Yosemite, under $200 bucks. OH! Your like me, and you want the 1-2-3 most easiest Yosemite Hikes for lazy people. Smart Green Travel......
• I'm not completely conscious of living the culture of green I was perusing the web this morning and this headline jumped off my computer screen, Are you an "ecosexual"? I said, "sure!" Wait, what is an ecosexual? Is it a man with green gonads? Is that a label the Jolly Green Giant Super Hero gives you for being sensitive to......

• Golf Gifts & Gallery Electric Putting Partner User Reviews Send this to a friend Golf Gifts & Gallery Electric Putting Partner Manufacturer: Golf Gifts & Gallery Customer Rating: List Price: Varies based on product options Sale Price: $13.65 Availibility: Usually ships in 24 hours Free Shipping Available Buy Now Product Description Electronic putting system - a......
• It’s A Brave New World For Eco-Designers. Guest post from Amy DuFault, who has been writing about fashion and design for ten years at such publications as Boston Magazine, Coastal Living and Bluefly.com as well as appearing on ABC’s Emmy award-winning Boston news magazine Chronicle and NBC’s Style File as a fashion expert. Currently she works as......
• Green Reading Gift Ideas from EcoBrain.com This holiday season consider giving the gift of a book, but rather than a traditional book that is made from trees and uses fuel to deliver, consider an EcoBrain eBook - the green reading choice. eBooks are instantly downloadable and readable on your desktop. No special equipment is needed for......
• Voting Time: Top Ten Nominees for Green Business of the Year. From Co-op America (one of my favorite sites), below are the top ten most popular green business nominations for 2008. See what green consumers are saying about the businesses, check out their Web sites, and then vote for your favorite before October 9. 1. Alter Eco San Francisco, CA......
• Rush 2 Perfume Review This is a review of the Rush 2 perfume, a perfume intended for use by women and designed by the Gucci design house. The Rush 2 perfume by Gucci is both a fresh and a flowery fragrance that opens up with accords of musk, rose and freesia. The Rush 2......

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

• Being green and reckless are not a match Thirteen states outlaw text messaging now. I think it should be every state, and the crazy part is I love to text behind the wheel. I've heard some blaming the government gaining more control. I think it's one of the most obsessive habits I'm dealing with behind the wheel. How......
• Disney keeps greening up while Six Flags go down A friend of mine joyfully jumped with family on a plane and entered the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. When I ran into him a few days later, I asked him, "Was it packed?” He said, "Oh yeah,  three hour waits for Indiana Jones and most rides for that matter."......
• Coming out of the dark and into the green by Jerry Hart You won't believe it. If you founded a company, then, you secretly invent a revolutionary green product that makes everyone gasp for air.  Yes, that would be staggering. Now, take it to another level.  You're not ready to show your cards, your hand, your invention, and your staff spills the......
• Who knew that being nice to the environment could look so naughty? by Jerry Hart 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......
• Wipe those green onion tears, it's time to celebrate! by Jerry Hart I'm all about "Oh Wow" green stories. This is surely one of them. I'm not about hearing TV anchors make cheesy jokes about cool green stories. That's why Will Farrel in Anchorman was such a GAS! The short of it is....Onion plant goes green, big time and the news people......

• Fool of Credit Card Finance - Reader Report I just have to pass on this "fools of finance" anecdote sent to me by observant reader Clifton: I  saw something yesterday that you might find interesting.  My wife and I had taken a short mini vacation to visit some old friends in Las Vegas.  We went to a Wal-Mart......
• Pay Bills Online and Save (Re-Post) Note: We are taking a short break from blogging this week and will be re-posting a few of our earlier articles that may not have been read by many of our current readers. If you have already read this article (and those few to come), we apologize for the repetition......
• How To Go Green With Your Banking Habits. If you are like most people (including myself in "most"), you have multiple bank accounts, several different utility company bills, a few credit cards as well as a regular paycheck that you have to deposit. (I know I got tired of dealing with all of them every week!) Dealing with......
• Finding the Right Bank A big portion of how you handle your finances will have a lot to do with the bank that you choose. In most cities, you should have quite a few choices, and with internet banking, it’s never been easier to find a new bank. However, before you open an account,......
• How To Avoid Credit Card, Bank, And Airline Fees. Over at CNN/Money they have an incredible list up of all the overpriced and ridiculous fees we have to pay for everything, from credit cards to mortgages to banking to investing. This list is quite exhaustive and I have posted the list without all the information they have up. To......

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.

• Violating principles of living green I was at lunch today with a local printing company and I asked the owner "How do you sleep at night printing all that paper, you green gremlin you?" He said he's doing everything he can to use recyclable or reusable paper. I'm impressed. He's trying to help businesses get......
• "recyclable", "biodegradable" and "natural" don't always translate into sustainable by Jerry Hart So many topics to discuss. Brad Pitt's biodegrable body lotion, Tiger Woods is now like the rest of us, a real human being. America's dollar is weaker, China is building huge solar plants in Arizona and India will not buy our bonds, rather they buy more gold. Most of what I just said is not that......
• What exactly does eco-friendly products and services entail? by Jerry Hart [/caption] Have you noticed big brands becoming green. A new home subdivision down the street is slated as "Solar Homes." My local gym says, "We are fit for Green and rated best in green for 2009."  Even Oreck Vaccuum Cleaners released a green gas powered vacuum cleaner and think that's......
• How do you know you swallowed water that is making you ill? by Jerry Hart We see so many people these days struggling to keep their heads above water and now that cliche is no longer a euphemism. Just this week two miles of beach in New Jersey closed after a pipe broke at the Asbury Park sewage treatment plant, releasing about half a million......
• When the government can't afford to be green, we make it happen. Check out Minnesota's mind blower on Smart Green Travel with Jerry Hart on Green 960 AM San Francisco Minnesota's government pulls the plug on what would be history making.  What did Minnesota do to resurrect their states largest environmental Green Event? What a story to inspire anyone who feels defeated by negativity and oppression of this recession. Is Vermont's Governor Crazy? Shutting down their freeways and interstates statewide......

• Work At Home Jobs. Helpful Info To Take Into Consideration In spite of the reality that the majority of persons think that work at home jobs are just a huge rumor and that they do not exist the truth is that these types of online jobs do actually exist. Even more – each one can find work at home job,......
• Voting Time: Top Ten Nominees for Green Business of the Year. From Co-op America (one of my favorite sites), below are the top ten most popular green business nominations for 2008. See what green consumers are saying about the businesses, check out their Web sites, and then vote for your favorite before October 9. 1. Alter Eco San Francisco, CA......
• Set Up A Blog If You Are Planning To Generate Some Dollars Online As the web expands into an enormous virtual realm more and more people are uncovering that there is a respectable amount of cash to be made from it. They have in the end realized that being an online marketer could be a good career. A number of people have come......
• Book Review & Giveaway-Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle Is Redefining Green Business. This giveaway has ended. It's time for another giveaway, and this time it is for a copy of the new book from the founder of TerraCycle, Tom Szaky. Back in August of last year, I wrote a post about a few of the products that TerraCycle makes out of......
• Bad Day of Work, Striper, V1C5 This post is from SFBoater Trophy Catch Jackpot I. Got a trophy catch? Get paid for your fish stories Bad Day of Work = Time to go Striper Fishing By Kelly MacCormack Just wanted to share a little fish story to everyone! So I had a wicked bad day......

So many topics to discuss. Brad Pitt’s biodegrable body lotion, Tiger Woods is now like the rest of us, a real human being. America’s dollar is weaker, China is building huge solar plants in Arizona and India will not buy our bonds, rather they buy more gold. Most of what I just said is not that interesting so lets do some “You Got to be Kidding Me” gift ingredient audits.

I’ve been shopping for holiday gifts and as a cheif responsible blogger at Hart of Green, I have to pull back that veil on “Biodegradable”. What you don’t know will only help you feel more stupid when you find out whats really in these products posing as 100% green.

You got to be kidding me #1…

100% biodegradable body wash? …really? 100?

On the positive side, when I look at all the ingredients in most of these products, I found most are able to break down within 28 days. Not much biodegrades available as ingredients, especially the thing we care about the most, THE SCENT - there are really only three scents to choose from. Hence, why we see so much aloe.

Packaging-wise, most bottles are made of post-consumer recycled plastic

However, all had fragrances and preservatives such as potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate, which can form into the carcinogen benzene if it comes in contact with acids. And there’s isoeugenol, also found in the body wash, which is currently listed as a “high hazard” ingredient on the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetic database.

Of course, it’s not as though using this body wash will cause skin cancer, but compare it to something like Dr. Bronner’s soaps, which are made of nothing but glycerin and essential oils - fair-trade, organic ones at that - and it suddenly doesn’t seem so impressive.

You got to be kidding me #2

While most all bottles are recyclable, the pumps are not. Even Brad Pitt’s, Kiehl’s, generally tries to be eco-conscious in their product development and retail, it has yet to offer an in-store refill option.

What’s scary is we should grab a bottle of Jean-Nate and see what’s in that. Remember that stuff? They still sell it.  Even scarier, I bet Brad Pitt and Angelina flood thier bathtub with it.

Furthermore, biodegradable soap is actually not biodegradable when it ends up in a body of water, because it requires soil for it to break down properly.

This is why many “camping friendly” soaps have labels reading “Do all washing, bathing or cleaning at least 200 feet from any water sources.”

So you make the call. More products posturing as green this holiday season on the margins of what is otherwise an unsustainable product. There are two components with biodegradable, the ingredients and the packaging, and neither is as sustainable as something like a bar soap, which is natural, doesn’t require packaging and has a long shelf life.”

There are two categories of green products:

Best in class, which refers to the best of a bad set of products (for example, biodegradable plastic bags, which are better than regular plastic bags but still belong to a category that’s inherently unsustainable); and alternatives to unsustainable products, such as a cleaning solution that uses vinegar instead of ammonia as a base.

Companies that are genuinely trying to change their ways for the sake of the environment should be commended, even if they’re not perfectly green in the end.

But consumers who are serious about reducing their footprint will soon figure out that words like “recyclable,” “biodegradable” and “natural” don’t always translate into sustainable.

• Wal-Mart indicating its product's eco-friendliness by Jerry Hart Last week, Wal-Mart started putting labels on products indicating its product's eco-friendliness. Be honest. Buying green items can be down the priority list when we feel unwilling to pay more for environmentally friendly goods. For you...is the green you care about, the green in your pocket right now? Do you......
• Greenest Cities in the World with Jerry Hart on Smart Green Travel on Green 960 AM San Francisco [/caption] Who's recycling more and "trashing" less? Smart Green Travel visits the top green cities and few runners up who have made the most impressive strides toward eco-friendliness and sustainability. Factors are air, the climate, our health, the landscape and the habitat. When a city accepts as a mandate its......
• Does green mean acting like a piece of fruit while you sleep? I've had so much fun this week. I've pledged to be a non smoker starting June 1, 2009. Giving back to me and the planet. I discovered I'm a lousy Green date [at least at the moment] and might not be sexy enough for the eco-walk, according to Planet Green......
• BE green with humility When you reach milestones that involve a new experience, excitement usually follows. A friend tells me about this article. I think to myself, "Oh lord, not a long interview on some boring website that feels like visual valium..wait, don't judge it. Stop being so negative and BE green with......
• Sears Tower Glass Observation Deck made me look uncomfortably green by Jerry Hart Have you seen the Chicago Sears Tower piece that's been running on TV? Oh man, take some Dramamine to get thru it. They have redesigned the observation deck with glass floors that extend beyond the building by 10 feet. OK, that is freaky scary and makes my stomach turn just......

• Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more than 80 top products is just what you need. Everyone's got saving money on their minds these days. Some of us are always looking to......
• From The Good Human Archives - November 2007. For new readers of The Good Human and for those of you who may have missed them the first time around, here are a few of my favorite articles from November 2007. With well over 1,100 articles on the site, it's easy to miss some - I forget about some......
• The Truth of Green Product Claims If you are confused when it comes to green building products and the claims that are being made by their manufacturers, you are not the only one. Navigating the complex world behind green products and the claims that they make is not always easy, but it has become necessary in......
• Alp-N-Rock Luxe Clothing for Men and Women Simply put, I have found my new favorite shirts. From their unbelievably soft feel against the body to their unique and dynamic design, Alp-N-Rock luxe clothing for men and women clothing sets the mark for all contemporary high-end resort inspired fashion. Often, my expectations are far too high. As such,......
• The Ultimate Guide To Green Pest Control. For many years, people have continued to use poisonous solutions to kill pests within their home and on their property. While these chemicals may kill the pests, they are also very harmful. When you think about it, you will see the danger of spraying or sprinkling toxins all over the......