For many years, money that was used for good will was called charity and money used to make more money was called investing. Not anymore.

Today, the two concepts are forming into a financial arena called socially responsible investing. Both investors and mutual fund companies are implementing this new idea and discovering that they can be profitable and at the same time do some good for the environment and society.

“Socially responsible investing means you don’t have to compromise your own personal beliefs to make money on Wall Street… whatever those beliefs are,” states Bob Guthrie, who is an investment broker with A.G. Edwards in Burlington, Vt.

Even back in the early 1900’s the idea of choosing investments for social reasons occurred when church members formed together and refused to invest in tobacco or alcohol companies. Guthrie also says that the trend has continued with investors dodging corporations associated with the Vietnam War or companies investing in South Africa. And that trend continues today with investors selecting companies that are more environmentally friendly over those that are not.

So, yes, growth in this type of investing has ballooned during the past few years as more and more investors have moved social consciousness into the main street of investing. And the impact of this trend is being felt.

With help from stockholders, says Rob Kruger, vice president of portfolio management at Progressive Asset Management, business practices concerning the environment are beginning to change, While the issues may differ, he said companies are realizing they will suffer the consequences if they aren’t viewed as being socially responsible.

Kruger said, “As this investing community continues to grow, a lot of proposals are being addressed by investors at annual shareholder meetings. A whole spectrum of issues and activities is now being put forward.”

As part of its operational procedures, Progressive Asset Management conducts research for eco-friendly and socially responsible mutual funds. The firm filters out companies for environmental problems or nuclear involvement or whatever issues their clients are concerned about.

“As time flies, companies are becoming more and more cooperative with us,” Kruger said. “Many of them are now very eager to talk about these social and environmental issues.”

Guthrie agrees that American corporations and business practices are aware of stockholders who are very concerned with social and environmental responsibility.

“Make sure your hard-earned capital is not invested in companies with little concern for the environment,” he advises. “Keep these things in mind when you invest and corporations will, too.”

Bear bile farming is a reality today. Although it is unnecessary to bile a bear, it is still very much a common practice in some places today. It causes extreme pain to the bears. During the process, it can be observed that bears gnash their teeth, bite their cages, moan, and even chew their own paws because of the pain.

Bile Extraction - Bile extraction is done in the crudest manner, and without any form of sanitation. The persons conducting it are unskilled and the process is not up to modern veterinary standards. Most of the bears die during or soon after bile extraction. If they live, they suffer from liver cancer, as a result of chronic inflammation and infection of the gall bladder and liver. Generally, farmed bears live only up to 4 years.

Why People Bile Bears - Bile is a digestive liquid produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. Bile gathered from bears has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for at least three thousand years for a variety of purposes. It is used in Chinese physiotherapy, to cure inflammations and to dissolve gall stones and kidney stones. Also, it is thought to help detoxify the liver and improve eyesight. And according to research, bears are the only mammals that produce the bile salt ursodeoxycholic acid, which is effective in treating some liver diseases.

Before, bear bile was gathered by killing wild bears and removing their gallbladders. In recent decades, when wild bears became increasingly rare, bile became prohibitively costly for most Chinese. But then, during the year 1980, the Chinese bear bile farming industry adapted a technique first developed in North Korea. This involved extracting bile from captive bears without having to kill them.

Bear Cruelty - The bears are housed in cages hardly large enough to hold the animal itself. To get the bile, an incision is made in each bear’s abdomen and a catheter (which is basically a plastic or rubber tube) is then inserted into the gallbladder. The bile is drained through the catheter and then gathered for sale.

How is the process done? To gather the bile from the gallbladder, a connection from the gallbladder (located deep inside the body) to the surface has to be established. The connection, which is medically called fistula, is made in any of the three ways: insertion of a metal tube, insertion of a plastic tube, or creation of a tissue bridge between the gallbladder and skin. The connection is conducted by untrained and unskilled individuals who do not observe modern veterinary standards.

To gather the bile, some bears wear a “metal jacket”. It is worn around their bodies and it has a collection container attached to it. There are bears forced to lie on the floor of their small cages so the bile will drip downward. Keep in mind that their crush cages are extremely small. The floor is made up of iron bars so the bears cannot stand or lie down on firm ground. This results in neck and back injury. Since a bear’s body will try to exclude the inserted metal or plastic tube or close the tissue bridge, scarring and damage is done to both the inside and outside of the bear. Sometimes, to prevent the closing of the incision, hot pieces of metal are inserted without any form of sedation or anesthesia. Bile is collected twice a day, and this goes on for the rest of their lives.

Why Bear Farming is Useless - This is all very unnecessary. There is no need to make poor bears undergo such abuse. The use of bear bile is obsolete. There are at least 75 herbal medicines that can be used as an alternative to bear bile. Of which, 54 are proven to work. These alternatives are a lot cheaper and more convenient.

Now, synthesized bear bile that contains UrsoDeoxyCholic Acid (the active constituent in bear bile) is available. All these alternatives are just as effective without the deaths of innocent bears. Let us put a stop to bear bile farming. It causes unnecessary torture to poor bears.

People are beginning to turn to green living practices, to help save the planet for their descendants, as global warming continues to pose a danger for the planet’s future. All aspects of our lives, including driving to work and mowing our lawns, can be incorporated into to living green.

It’s a daunting prospect to switch to green living all at one time, and this might actually scare some people away from taking on these most important earth friendly changes. However, you can start slowly, so that you ease into green living and will still help positively impact the earth’s environment.

Some cities have a big problem with smog and air pollution, and much of it can be traced to manufacturing plants. However, that’s not the only contributor to the problem. Cars and trucks, traffic congestion and long commutes add considerably to the pollution.

With so many vehicles making their way through the streets, the sheer volume of pollutants being produced is wiping out the atmosphere’s ozone layer. If you would like to do your part to preserve the environment, consider car pooling, cycling or walking to work, taking public transportation, or even purchasing a new hybrid vehicle that’s less damaging to the air you breathe.

Even small changes like this can provide substantial environmental relief and help to ensure our world is here for many generations to come. If you examine your home, you will find various ways to include green living in your life. Which brand and type of bulb do you use?

Typical incandescent bulbs add up to higher electricity costs and more carbon dioxide. If you exchange even a few of these light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs, you can help save the environment and also save money on your electric bills.

You can also seal any gaps around your windows or doors to keep any cool drafts from going into the house. This can cost you more money. Your house should be well insulated so that you can cut down on energy “escapes,” especially during the wintertime. The better insulated your house, the less your furnace will have to run, which will save you money and will save energy, too.

Next, examine your appliances to see if they’re consuming excessive energy. If you have older models, it’s likely that they’re not very efficient. While some of the changes are in the appliances that you use, other ways to go green involve your own habits and actions.

For instance, do you find yourself opening your oven door frequently to see if what you are preparing is done? How hard an appliance has to work is directly proportional to how hard it is on the environment. Continually opening the oven door will result in the temperature dropping almost 25 degrees. The oven will have to work again, even harder, to bring the temperature back to the level at which it originally was.

Recycling is an excellent way to save our environment. Try to buy as many products as you can that can be recycled. Avoid the non-recyclable items such as Styrofoam cups. The less trash that has to be burned - or buried into our soil - the better off our planet will be.

These may seem like small changes, but they can have a huge impact on the environment. Simply put, if everyone does them, this has a huge impact in a positive way on the environment. Every little bit everyone can do will go a long way toward preserving our planet for future generations. Pay attention to the environment and get involved so that you, too, begin to positively impact the environment through green living practices that will only benefit the earth.

Bono (of the band U2) and his wife Ali put me in business, and did not even know it. I could have never done it without them. My new cartoon t-shirt business is eco-friendly, thanks to them. The great irony is, they probably will never read this, and will never know what they did for me. But what they are doing for the planet, with Edun Organics is not only a business they launched, of organic cotton textiles to make eco-friendly clothing, but (at the risk of sounding overly-dramatic) a gift to humanity.

In the late 1990’s, after working for twenty years in the corporate world, I faced unemployment due to health issues which would eventually disable me. I could no longer do the work I had been trained to do and worked very hard to rise through the ranks in my chosen field, which has nothing to do with what I do now at age 53.

As time went by, I became a cartoonist and freelance writer. I put up a cartoon site and it became more or less a hobby, with eventual small sales to publications. By 2005, I had been doing this from my home like a robot, I never really looked up to see the achievement. But I was now getting requests from major charities to send them autographed cartoons for their celebrity auctions. I was getting requests to buy cartoons from magazine, website, and Ezine publishers. Manufacturers wanted to license my images. I was surprised to see I had over 8000 original cartoons on my site now, over 3 million annual visitors, and highly rated on Google and Alexa among other analytical sites. Now I had thirteen stores yet something was missing. I had always been aware of the environment and how fragile our planet is. Even though my products were selling wonderfully on such items as tees, mouse pads, coffee mugs, hoodies, and the like, something was bothering me.

A great movement was happening on our planet. It was becoming earth-friendly, not just with foods, but now with products like clothing that affected us and the environment. I felt I was being left behind, even though I had always tried to live my life that way. So I started my search for organic cotton manufacturers and though I found a number of them, the minimum order was just too much. Then I came across a POD (Print On Demand) established firm called Zazzle and noticed they handled men’s and women’s organic cotton tees that uses a totally nontoxic dye process. Not only that, but all I had to have was the graphic, and place it on the product digitally, and they did the rest, from producing the product to shipping it. No minimum. I could sell them individually, or deep discounts if bought in quantities.

Bono’s manufacturing firm is Edun Oganics. Edun is “Nude” backwards. I created my organic cotton tee store last month and discovered I was the first cartoonist, I’m told, to “go green” and I’m printing on Edun products. Today, I read that Edun was launched and is owned by Bono (of the band U2) and his wife Ali. Chances are they will never see this article, and that is alright. I will write them a thank you note. They leveled the playing field for me. I finally was able to align my actions with what was/is in my heart, thanks to someone who had already brought me much joy with his music, and his wife, Ali. Thank you Bono and Ali, in case you ever see this. You made this cartoonist, who was once considered disabled, a very happy man, and I finally get my chance to give something back to our fragile world, and I sleep better at night, thanks to Zazzle, Bono, and Ali.

It’s true that today’s rising gas prices are something we all hate. However, we really have only ourselves to blame. In fact, they’re just one example of how our reliance on nonrenewable and polluting fossil fuels can ruin not just our standard of living, but earth itself.

Of course rising gas prices are inconvenient and may even put us in the poor house. But the damage we do with these energy sources both to ourselves and to the environment is even worse than the damage we’ve done to our own sense of financial well-being. It’s time we did something better.

If we can’t depend on nonrenewable and polluting fossil fuel sources such as gasoline to fulfill our energy wants, what should we do?

Well, there’s water fuel. Water fuel conversion technology isn’t new, but its benefits are finally something we can no longer ignore. You can run your car at least partially on water fuel and give yourself significant savings if you utilize this technology; further, you’ll be significantly impacting the environment in a positive way as well.

When you do water fuel conversion, your gas mileage will about double over what you’re getting now. You and your family will also be helping the environment very positively. You’ll be adding much less carbon dioxide and monoxide to the atmosphere every time you take your car out.

Perhaps best of all, water fuel technology is quite inexpensive. The conversion kit is going to cost you about $100, but you’ll save that very quickly by using less gas. This should mean that you’ll be able to make back your initial investment very shortly, for more fuel and cash savings - an advantage for you and your family.

This may even make you and your family able to resist a recession, because the savings will give you a financial cushion others may not have. In addition, the government also gives you a tax write off when you use this type of technology, which is yet another opportunity to save some money.

Instead, your children can see you take steps to help the environment by helping alleviate global warming and other negative environment effects as they grow up. In turn, this can teach them lessons that making carry with them as adults. Then they, too, can live their lives knowing that their actions impact the environment and living accordingly.

Utilizing water fuel conversion technology is just one smart way among many to be both financially and environmentally conscientious.