Each day we cover the green sector of the automotive industry, and we see news coming from every direction touting some sort of new technology that is intended to reduce the effect our transportation has on the environment. Some of these technologies are easy to disregard as mere pipe-dreams, while others take a little more time to digest. For that reason, we've decided to take the opportunity on Earth Day to highlight some of the most promising green technologies that are either currently hitting the market or are just over the horizon. Follow along as we cover what we consider to be the top ten most promising green technologies. The ride starts here.

When we were brainstorming ideas for Earth Day posts, we thought about featuring the ten most exciting green cars we wish we could buy today. It turns out that there are at least twice as many green rides on the horizon that we'd really like to have today, so the list has expanded. We'd like to note that this list is far from complete; the green sector of the automotive industry is growing in leaps and bounds. Start here and join us for a guided preview of our future garages or jump ahead by clicking on a number below. Either way, enjoy!

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There you have it. Take a look at our list and, as always, feel free to share your own favorites in the comments.

Modern Mechanix is a really great magazine that began in 1928. It's a lot like Popular Mechanics and Popular Science but focused on the efforts of do-it-yourselfers. There are lots of ideas we may think are new like compressed air cars and small cars but were chronicled in the pages of this magazine. Looking through the archives, it became clear how much cool stuff has been around for a long time. Below the fold you will find our picks for the top 10 articles about green automotive inventions.

[Source: Modern Mechanix]

WIRED has compiled a list of fast green cars. The magazine looked for the fastest cars that ran on a type of green fuel or no fuel at all, like the Volvo Aria in the picture above. That car runs on gravity and won the 2005 extreme gravity race. Ethanol, steam, hydrogen, electric, solar, gravity, human power, wind - they're all in WIRED's list. Of course, Autoblog and AutoblogGreen have covered all of these great, green cars. Except for the Nuna4 solar car, which we somehow missed. Below is WIRED's list with links to our coverage of these cars. Alongside the links are the speeds the cars reached. We were disappointed to see that the White Zombie and especially Buckeye Bullet did not make the list. So, we just might have to make a fastest list of our own. Please vote for your favorite fast green cars in the comments.

1. Ethanol Viper 220.7 MPH
2. Steam Inspiration 215 MPH
3. Hydrogen Ford 207.3 MPH
4. Diesel Audi 204.5 MPH
5. Hybrid Prius 130.8 MPH
6. Electric Tesla 130 MPH
7. Solar Nuna4 80 MPH
8. Gravity Aria 54 MPH
9. Humancar 30 MPH
10. Wind Venturi 31 MPH

[Source: Wired]

Today, we will be listing the top ten easiest to implement green technologies that already exist today. Now, this is a rough list, every car is different and not all of these technologies are applicable to each one. But, let's take a look at each one and see what gains there could be from them, starting with the easiest one, LED bulbs.

LED stands for light emitting diode, and they are already common in all types of devices. One very desirable trait that they posses is that they last a very long time. They also can be quite bright. Additionally, the bulbs draw very little electricity, which paves the way for some of our other gas-saving technologies later on the list.

Next on the list are smaller wheels. With DUBS being ultra-hip these days, I'm not going to go crazy and say we should all go back to fourteen inch wheels. But, style is getting in the way of substance when our wheels get much larger than seventeen or eighteen inches. Also, consider going narrower! Wide tires convince some that the car must be faster. In reality, most of the time they are just using more gas.

Keep reading after the jump for the rest of our commentary.