The difference between green and cheap is a slippery slope on the 4th of July by Jerry Hart

Lets cover packaging of water first before we get into those scandalous tomatoes

Myth: Since bottled water is regulated by the FDA, it is safer to drink than tap water.

Fact: A study by the National Resources Defense Council found that 25% of bottled water is actually just packaged tap water, sometimes without any additional treatment. Municipal water is subject to EPA standards and is as safe as or safer than the bottled variety.

Myth: Bottled Water that’s been sitting in that warm cab of your car for days is safe to drink?

Fact: Longer answer below

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How can canned tomatoes and water be certified organic when the lining of the can contains BPA? by Jerry Hart

Lets cover packaging of water first before we get into those scandalous tomatoes

Myth: Since bottled water is regulated by the FDA, it is safer to drink than tap water.

Fact: A study by the National Resources Defense Council found that 25% of bottled water is actually just packaged tap water, sometimes without any additional treatment. Municipal water is subject to EPA standards and is as safe as or safer than the bottled variety.

Myth: Bottled Water that’s been sitting in that warm cab of your car for days is safe to drink?

Fact: Longer answer below

How many times have you swallowed a delicious swig of water from a water bottle that’s been in hanging around for a couple days? You know, the water bottle that sits in the car for a few days and you sip on it occasionally like a hamster milking a water spicket.

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Rob a bank and Go Green! by Jerry Hart

I have this strange debacle facing me that every time I hit the print button on my computer I’m going un-green.

I learned my lesson didn’t I? God may have yanked on my ear lobe and yet based on my printing paper spend, I’m not sure I learned the lesson.

I loaned some money from my brother years ago, back when 3 houses just wasn’t quite enough. I’m making payments on the loan and stroll into Wells Fargo to deposit my satchel of coins for my dear brother who loves me so much he trusted me to pay him back.

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You get to choose when you're green

What was that line from Days of Our Lives, soap opera? "Like sand thru the hourglass, these are the bowls of our lives." Now, I own a bowl I never dreamed would be part of my life and even better, I feel great living green and walking the talk. No, I was not about to buy the new toilet from Sink Positive. I give that company a lot of credit for greening their toilets so that when you use the sink on top of the tank, that grey water is used for toilet flushes. I get it... up to the point that I'm supposed to brush my teeth over the toilet. One day I know it will be all the rage but until then, in terms of my green credibility in your eyes, have I been demoted to a lime green from forest green? Maybe I can persuade you.

I've had one toilet in the house that has been broken for a few months and was avoiding buying a new one. My brother said, "Hey, Mr.Green, how 'bout a toilet that's reaaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy green."

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The solar-powered ‘dragon’ stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Today it's really cool images from our green friends in Japan.

The solar-powered ‘dragon’ stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is the world’s first stadium which gets all its power needs from the sun.

Designed by Japanese architect Toyo on a steel-rod structure with a roof covered with solar panels, the horseshoe-shaped structure has been constructed for the World Games to be held in Kaohsiung city in July 2009. Spread over 19 hectares and having a seating capacity of 55,000 it will be used mainly for athletics and rugby events, including hosting the main events for the 2009 World Games.

After the World Games, the Taiwanese national football team will play home matches at the dragon’ stadium.

The stadium’s unique, semi-spiral shape imitates a dragon and is intended to provide a “cordial welcome and a cheerful greeting to athletes and spectators with its open-ended structure,” according to the organizers of the World Games.

There are 8,844 solar panels on the roof which are expected to generate more electricity than is needed to power the building’s 3,300 lights and two gigantic television screens. Some 1.14 million kWh of electricity a year will be generated – preventing, in the process, 660 tons of carbon dioxide from being discharged into the atmosphere.

As for the surplus energy generated during the warm weather, the government of Taiwan intends to sell it

Thanks to my freinds at GreenPacks for some really grand slam images and a great post!

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1Ed McMahn 2Farrah Fawcett 3Michael Jackson by Jerry Hart

1Ed McMahn 2Farrah Fawcett 3Michael Jackson by Jerry Hart

If part of the meaning of green embodies truth, then we know today, social media is a tool that empowers wisdom or truth of the crowd to project the message further and perhaps, more authentically than any agenda based media publisher on earth could do on earth.

It’s been quite a day hasn’t it? Three icons leaving us in one week. Ed McMahon who I met in Milwaukee in ‘96 and he was a very nice man. Farrah Fawcett is gone now. She was so beautiful… and did you know she had the #1 selling poster in history? Hey, I had one. And, Michael is now on the other side. Wow.

So many emotions about Farrah and Michael dying on the same day and the pervasive use of social media to know what’s true. It’s more than irony to me

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1Ed McMahn 2Farrah Fawcett 3Michael Jackson by Jerry Hart

I saw a green nightmare on TV last night

Did you see the shocking story on 60 minutes about the ship breaking beaches of Bangladesh? At first I thought the story was horrible, then my emotions fell downward to anger as I watched a nightmare on television.

Let me digress quickly about my journey of joy, living green and assessing my emotions every eco-step of the way. This was the first green story ever, that truly boiled my insides morphing from anger, as I just mentioned, to a nightmare. Have you had one of these episodes where you can’t think of anything else and can’t feel anything but the ache in your belly for people less privileged than you.

What do you do with those emotions in the moment? I directed myself to Websters dictionary to define what I was initially feeling which was the emotion of viewing people like you and me in horrible conditions. Then, the story made me physically nauseated leading to my labeling this story an utter nightmare.

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Big solar panel sitting on a long steal rod by Jerry Hart

Posting options for today

• Most powerful guy in Iran is tweeting everyday. Wow! If he's turned on to tweet, maybe we should be too?
• A Diesel Volkswagen is much more green than a Prius. I have proof.
• Write about a big solar panel sitting on a long steal rod in my backyard. Yeah. why not?

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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.

turtle-headHow could you not spend a few million bucks on a face like that?
Do we hire a couple green turtle loving people to guide the turtles thru the tunnel?
How can we rely on Turtles to know where the eco-hole under the eco-tunnel is positioned?

Hey, I'm just the new green guy wanting some logical understanding here. Help a green brother out.

You know I did do my homework on this and found out they did the same ...

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“Hey Alex, I’ll take the Sustainable Energy for $300″

What does sustainable mean? In the U.S. and Canada, many residential builders use the word “sustainable” as a synonym for “green.” We hear about sustainable development, sustainable homes, and sustainable building products. Now that the word “sustainable” has become ubiquitous — even at the GreenBuildingAdvisor Web site, where a new $736,000 home on the coast of Maine is described as a “sustainable spec house” — it’s time to take a step back and consider the word’s history. It is really important to separate the green from the greenwash as we proceed down a path of improving our planet. Otherwise, we won’t improve it! Can we find sustainability within an opulent western lifestyle? I think we can, if we know what it means first.

Plus sustainability means it will require a broad social movement, with people from all walks of life buying into the idea that sustainable is not bad for us, that we do not have to have less to be sustainable. (Actually, we will end up having less, but we won’t mind because we will have chosen to have less.) Lets break down the word “sustainable”

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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." I was shocked with the economy in shambles. Then I figured its stay-cation time not va-cation time. Families are staying closer to home for one day trips, rather than migrating away from home, breaking the bank.

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Solar panels, hybrid cars, and recycling garbage are only scratching the surface

It's easy to regurgitate what the the media deems as green worthy for this day. It's not easy bringing my authentic self to you, sharing my most heartfelt life changing experiences and synthesizing them so we can learn together. So lets briefly hit on what most green media spent most of their time talking about, then we can get to the lesson.

gosselin_hawaiiJon and Kate Gosselin, the heads of the crowded Pennsylvania household featured on the hugely popular TLC show, have recently made a push to have a more Earth-friendly lifestyle.

Some TV experts have applauded the efforts.

"This woman not only raises a family of eight kids — she also recycles, she buys organic food whenever possible, she buys local food whenever possible and she's overcome a lot of the obstacles a lot of people are still tripping on," gushed Sarah Snow, a green-living expert and TV host, during an appearance on the show.

On the converse other green bloggers are sounding off! The only green they see is caused by nausea over Jon and Kate's attempts.

various quotes from environmental blogs today
"Sure, the family might have installed solar panels and made a fuss over recycling, but with eight little carbon footprints running around on the Earth, America's most televised family is hardly non-consumptive, charge some greenies."

"No matter what this family does, it could NEVER go green," writes one blogger on Treehugger.com. "The most green families are those with one child or none. So this family has absorbed the CARBON FOOTPRINT OF 8 FAMILIES. This is very greedy!!!"

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Top 10 wild ways to go green

The restaurant I enjoyed today with family for lunch needs help. If using up too much unecessary space on paper is not green, then we know what Tahoe Joe's is doing on their menu is not green. Of course, I'm having fun and awakening my green intuition as to what is on the fringes of being a good green company or citizen.

So, nonetheless, I look up to the top right corner of the menu and it says, "Lunch served Monday thru Sunday"...hmmmm....isn't that EVERYDAY! I'm just sayin here...green is about efficiency and authentic conservation of everything including words.

Yes, I sound extreme or wild, and I'm in one of those silly moods again staring at this computer for too many hours and now I don't FEEL green. Does a case of retinal trauma from gazing at this monitor of mine for too long mean I get sympathy from you for not feeling green at the moment? No. oh, we'll I tried in my wild sort of way. Then it got me thinking what other wild ways could we go green.

Wild ways to go green? I'll start and you jump in for smiles and giggles.

1. Child eco-powered vehicles– are you forever running your kids from place to place and want to try and cut down on your carbon footprint? Why not put a cycle rack on top of your car and then attach a chain to the axle! The kids get exercise, you get to make sure they arrive safely from the comfort of the car and the whole thing is better for the environment – it’s a win-win situation.

2. Annual bathing – if it was good enough in medieval times why can’t it be good enough now? The savings in water will be huge, not to mention the money saving benefits that will come from the drastic decline in your social life. Americans like to bathe a lot. We're bath crazy. Although you may not believe me, you don’t need to bathe everyday. A couple times a week is good enough to keep you healthy. (If you are very physically active or work in the sewers/morgue/infectious disease ward, you are probably an exception.)

3. Forget fair-trade, source it yourself – if you want to ensure that products you buy are really ethical then what better way then compiling your own list of producers and sourcing everything direct from the point of origin? From fruit and veg to shoes and socks, you’ll be paying retail prices so the producers get an even better deal. Of course some producers may object to the paperwork and insist you buy in wholesale quantities, but hey, you can never have too many bananas!

5. Become a hermit – if even ethically sourcing everything yourself seems to resource intensive then why not shun worldly possessions altogether, live in a cave and eat what you can forage? You can’t get much closer to nature than that! You may cause a few pollution incidents in the early days as you learn which berries and fungi are good to eat, but at least you’ll have plenty of peace and quiet to recover.

6. Coat your house in tin foil – When all else fails there are always geo-engineering options. By coating your house and garden in tin foil you can reflect more of the Sun’s energy back in to space, thus reducing the global temperature and helping to reverse climate change.

OK LETS GET MORE PRACTICAL FOR THOSE WHO THINK I'M ON DRUGS

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Driving the green freeway of love a little slower now

As a new guy to green, driving the green freeway of love, well... my speeding habits may be catching up to me.

Yesterday I was just talking to a friend about Sammy Hagar and his smash hit from the 80's, "Can't drive 55".
The rock star was also the first person to update the first roadway speed sign of millions across California that went up 10 miles per hour from 55 to 65 in the mid 80's.

"Hey Sammy, can you come back out to drop those signs back to 55? Looks like his song could soon live up to what is a more safe and green approach to saving lives. The news is the U.K. wants to lower their speed limits by 10 miles per hour on the freeways and another 10 mile an hour reduction on two lane roads.

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How Pure is Your Hart of Green?

How pure is your Hart of Green?
Does it seem like you don’t hear much positivity around you? Maybe it’s the internet and all the commenting you see all over the web that amplifies our perception of the volume of negativity. If

I do hear something I presume is negative and there’s logic in the complaint from someone wanting to polute my air, I listen. Hey, I might learn a thing from someone that’s passionate.

For example, this green blog excited me to hear about this new show that aired last night! Earth 2100. I missed it, not intentionally, just didn’t know about it.
After getting stoked over when I can catch a re-run, I spotted a comment that seemed loaded with angst that actually triggered a belly laugh out of me.

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You think I'm a lazy greenie, check this photo out

You think I'm lazy, check this photo out. Look close, that's a twig sticking onto the roadway and look at the paint line on the street. Say what? This is one of those people that walk around saying, "that's not my job!". Just pick up the stick, good lord.

I'm in such a goofy mood today and am grateful for the good laugh. One more, my mother was commenting on something prolific I told her on the phone and she called it "expository". I said please don't say that word again, it's a little too close to suppository. Gotta love those hysterical moments with your Mom. You never know when those precious moments will disappear.

Next moment of fun was last night as I approached my gas guzzling Ford F-150 truck which I have got to turn in soon for something more green. I'll get there. Nonetheless, I stick my key in the door and started laughing at how lame it was that I was about to drive, literally, one block to the supermarket for one item. Of course, I walked to the store.

I can't tell you how many times I have thought, should I walk or drive this 1 block?... and have chosen the truck. Did I think "oh you lazy schlep?". No, I did not. Why would I? Just a month ago, I wasn't blogging everyday on Hart of Green. There was no deliberate desire to be aware of this precious planet with all it's beauty that we take for granted.

Hey, lets start a "Walking in San Francisco Club". Sure sounds better than running.

Need to know which city rocks for the walks? Yes, who ranks best for walking.

Read More of You think I’m a lazy greenie, check this photo out

You think I'm a lazy greenie, check this photo out

You think I'm lazy, check this photo out. Look close, that's a twig sticking onto the roadway and look at the paint line on the street. Say what? This is one of those people that walk around saying, "that's not my job!". Just pick up the stick, good lord.

I'm in such a goofy mood today and am grateful for the good laugh. One more, my mother was commenting on something prolific I told her on the phone and she called it "expository". I said please don't say that word again, it's a little too close to suppository. Gotta love those hysterical moments with your Mom. You never know when those precious moments will disappear.

Next moment of fun was last night as I approached my gas guzzling Ford F-150 truck which I have got to turn in soon for something more green. I'll get there. Nonetheless, I stick my key in the door and started laughing at how lame it was that I was about to drive, literally, one block to the supermarket for one item. Of course, I walked to the store.

I can't tell you how many times I have thought, should I walk or drive this 1 block?... and have chosen the truck. Did I think "oh you lazy schlep?". No, I did not. Why would I? Just a month ago, I wasn't blogging everyday on Hart of Green. There was no deliberate desire to be aware of this precious planet with all it's beauty that we take for granted.

Hey, lets start a "Walking in San Francisco Club". Sure sounds better than running.

Need to know which city rocks for the walks? Yes, who ranks best for walking.

How will we be a green America?

What an interesting day. I was going to celebrate my 17th hour straight without a smoke. Hart of Green is upgrading my bad habits and I'm so grateful. Some of us have to go thru a near death experience for a wake up call.

I I don't know about you, but the reason I'm making so many changes in my life to live more authentically is due to our climate change. Much more than weather, I'm talking about all of it, government, economy, religious, family relationships, the whole enchilada has changed. Everything we believed in just 12 months ago looks, tastes, or smells very different to me.

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The world beyond nuclear energy by Jerry Hart

I barely have my eyes open this morning and catch in my backyard and my ears hear "Energy Breakthrough".

I had that same feeling I mentioned yesterday when I was surfing on the web and ran into a video of Bill Clinton and a former Presidents mission to save the planet. The picture here kind of gives you the feeling I used to get when I would hear stories about energy.

Yawn, yawn, and of course, in my new found awareness of respecting green, I was staggered by the destructive future the world faces and became quickly humbled by Clinton's mission to morph our globe into a green non toxic world.

Upon impact of TV anchors shouting "Energy Breakthrough" from my TV, again, I was thinking, "Oh C'mon people, are we having a slow news day here?

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Skepticism and resistance to living green

This blog is about “Living to think green, a skeptic’s journey”.
Definition of “Skepticism”(a) an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object;
I’ve been very curious about how to lower my skepticism and resistance to living green. Living green means taking the time to appreciate our planet and understand how we can make our personal green contribution to this beautiful place called earth. I’m almost blown away as I just typed those emphatic feelings that are now my reality. I believe my intentions to be available for any sign I can find that will direct me to do the right green things are showing up in spades.
I’ve set intentions to:
1. Attract others who have a sense of urgency to live green and sincerely care about taking action.2. Monitor my Greendar,...which means... Read More of Skepticism and resistance to living green

Taking your monitor to the morgue

Okay, so you’ve just decided to get rid of an old piece of electronics, but you don’t know where to dispose of it. Nothing’s listed in your local Yellow Pages, you can’t call the morgue, and the town dump won’t take it. Where do you turn? How about your iPhone?
First, allow me if you will. I’m so happy that Hart of Green is slapping the green out of me! What does that mean? Pretty simple. I wasn’t blogging anything green just a few weeks ago and have opened this blog and shared as many of my real time experiences in hopes it helps you or perhaps entertains you. If I can entertain, inform, and inspire you to take action and enjoy this new found respect for how wonderful it is to be aware of green, then I’m good.

Here’s the deal.

Have you been thru ........
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Does green mean acting like a piece of fruit while you sleep?

I've had so much fun this week.

1. I've pledged to be a non smoker starting June 1, 2009. Giving back to me and the planet.
2. 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 {link to take quiz yourself}.
3. I'm still chuckling about the bottled water industry and their antics to remind me on their labels that their water come s from a “Public Water Source”. A politically correct way of saying “tap water”.
4. National Bike Day became a day I didn't even know existed.
5. I must have looked at this photo 100 times this week. It embodies my awe for our space program, our planet and my perception of how much more I can do to be green on earth.

Then the work week ended and I thought "What would a new green kind of guy do on...
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Does green mean acting like a piece of fruit while you sleep?

It’s not often I see a press release for a new site and talk about them on Hart of Green. Today we welcome to the world wide web [GGT] “Going Green Today”.

My FAQ’s are always a place for me to work out whether I like a site or not so, almost immediately when I arrived at this site I clicked FAQ. I’m like a teenager on Black Friday at a Wal-Mart front door ready to bolt in and find my Nintendo. In this case, find my FAQ’s. I’ll share some really interesting things I found, but first

The short of who they are, “Going Green Today, and what they do:

They want to make a collective impact on the environment by making individual lifestyle changes. Through the utilization of their coaching tools over a self-chosen time period, individuals will be guided to make green lifestyle decisions, save money and address global climate change. The GGT program uses an in-depth lifestyle survey to develop a clear picture of your life and habits. They then calculate your environmental impact to reduce your carbon footprint by creating a customized action plan. Your customized action plan can be implemented over 30, 60 or 90 days to reduce your personal impact by 30% and save you $2000 per year.

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Is NASA as green as me?

Our wonderful astronauts come home tonight after fixing Hubble for the last time. They plan to launch a new telescope soon and let Hubble disappear into the ether’s. That doesn’t sound very green with shrapnel from Hubble decaying it’s metal for millions of years to come. That’s not nearly as fun to talk about as Hubble’s ability to take photos that take your breath away. Does this photo do it for ya? Sure does for me. Maybe you look up on Google some of the solar systems it’s found recently. It’s absolutely profound and even more unreal when you let your mind wander and wonder what’s out there.

This photo alone got me thinking of other life and are they green on those planets we don’t know about.

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Are we being duped by polished photos of salacious waterfalls and streams of the Rockies? by Jerry Hart

We’ve all heard the ol’ Bring your own Beer right? Now, we have bring your own water bottle to the party. This is one of San Francisco’s biggest party on the streets called the Bay to Breaker footrace. Have you noticed how little we think about what’s in the bottle, rather we spend lots of time thinking about recycling the bottle, or in this case reuse?

The race was energizing to hear about all weekend, and even more interesting was looking at all the race photos with bottles in hand on the news today. I was happy to see the new ‘bring your own water bottle’ program and was chuckling at how little we think about the expensive tap water inside of the bottle.
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Small is not always “Green”

What a wonderful Mother’s Day, even though it wasn’t all that green.
I launched this blog a week ago and it’s been an exercise of shifting my mindset.

I want us to connect and appreciate how funny life can be when you simply reflect the reality of your green day, good, bad, indifferent.

Yesterday was an eye opener with my brother, a well-educated walking Wikipedia of life, who was helping me understand what car to buy and why?

We were on our way to see Star Trek, and I spotted a Smart Car and said “Look, a shopping cart with an airbag”. He said, “Oh, that thing, the two-seater golf cart?

I was fascinated at what he told me next. Read More about Small is not always “Green”

1) It runs on gas, no electric and only gets 27 miles per gallon on a good day.
2) Expensive - around $23,000.
3) At 100,000 miles you have to replace the battery. $6,000 for new batteries and the $150 charge from the dealer to dump it. How long do batteries sit in the ground and how harmful is that to the planet? I don’t know yet.
4) Smart Cars are made in Germany and get hauled on a big carbon of the sea footprint to hit our shores for sale.