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Ahhhhh, the coral reef! Coral is the underrated, misunderstood miracle life-form of our planet. After all, people don’t really eat it, so it’s not much of superfood. Seaweed also has some wonderful benefits for ingestion and the environment, but because you can eat it, it’s quite a trendy oceanic benefit at that.

What about the coral reef; the oh so lonely coral reef? Well, actually, as humble as coral might appear, being under that radar and all, this life-form is far from being lonely, even if it is slowly dying due to harmful pollution and over-fishing. You see, coral is a symbiotic master. It lives a beautiful existence, mutually taking and giving back to the life-forms around it. As balanced as coral is, don’t you think we as humans can learn a few things from this biological exchange? Just food for thought, even if coral isn’t quite a food.

Maybe isn’t necessarily food (although it produces much of it) but it is most definitely medicine. Just see this wonderful video about coral and it’s medicinal benefits:

Coral has been a lifesaver for many, but for how long can we continue to take from coral reefs and not give back the way they do. What a basic principle that we as a global community can’t quite get.  Coral reefs have this “give and take” down to a science!

With an astounding 75% of our earth’s coral under immediate threat, is there something we can do? Even for the sake of “medical greed”, can’t we do something to save the coral reefs? After all, many scientists now project that coral holds the key to unlocking cures for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Now do we have each others’ attention?!

Money talks, so let’s get the big drug companies involved in preserving our precious coral reefs. If drugs derived from coral for medicinal benefit (and therefore commercial benefit) end up being lucrative for big pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Pfizer, and the other giants, they should fund efforts to preserve coral for future generations.  It would be a win-win situation.

Your Green Magazine is out to spread the word on this issue.  Help spread the word on saving our coral reefs. Lives depend on it, human or otherwise.

The fabric created using pineapple is appropriately called Pina Fiber. The threads are derived from the leaves of the pineapple plant, usually grown in the Philippines. The process of handcrafting this fabric is shown above, as it is often created as such in the Philippines and Indonesia. The textile produced is described as soft and luxurious and is being used by fashion designers across the globe.

The next item on the list is surprisingly, x-rays. Yes, the same X-rays that confirm your broken bones are now being worn as the latest fashion statement. Playback Clothing is launching a line of x-ray recycled t-shirts that are made by mixing the x-rays with recycled cotton material resulting in an array of colors. Playback also recycles old soda bottles to make hoodies and t-shirts. However, what differentiates this company from others is the use of dye is completely eliminated in the process, using the original colors from the soda bottles. Thus, hues such as “Beer Bottle Brown” are featured in the line. Now you can have your beer and wear it too!

Another odd resource being put to new use, is coffee grounds. “S Cafe” is a fabric being created in the Taiwan based company Singtex Industries by using waste coffee grounds. That old cup of joe you drink every morning can yield as much as two shirts.

Seacell is, yes, you guessed it, fabric made from seaweed. Seacell is made by combining cellulose with a small percentage of seaweed. The fabric has even been claimed to have therapeutic assets as well, however, that rumor is yet to be proven. Nonetheless, this kelpy innovation is still more than welcome in the textile industry.

Altogether it looks like cotton might be getting a little competition with these alternatives. We’re just excited to see what’s next.

The belt is planned to span across the entire lunar equator, being around 11,000 km long and around 400 km wide. The power would be transferred back to earth via microwave power transmission antennas and laser power transmission facilities. These power transmission facilities would be on the near side of the moon, (the side that always faces earth) while the side facing the sun would be absorbing solar power. Finally, a radio beacon would ensure the safe voyage of this power and guide it to the receptors on Earth.

If just the concept alone blows your mind, wait until you hear the building process. The building of this giant structure would be done by robots, being controlled 24 hours a day by operators on Earth. Along with the robots, there would also be a group of astronaut supervisors. The machines and equipment would be ever so conveniently, assembled in space and then land on the moon to begin the building process. Sound simple? We didn’t think so either.

The process, funds, and amount of work needed to build something like this, even we will admit, is a little too far fetched. While we can appreciate the innovative nature of Shimizu, and their ability to shock us all with their “out there” ideas for solutions to the current crisis our planet is in, we definitely don’t think the moon will be sporting a belt any time soon.

Not only is the golf ball itself environmentally safe and recyclable, but the packaging is also made from entirely recyclable materials. However, the performance of the golf ball is not compromised despite the new materials used. Additionally, the “Official Golf Ball” of the eGolf Tarheel Tour for 2009 was no other than Dixon’s new Earth Ball. Surprisingly, the ball even out-performed several three piece urethane golf balls in testing, displaying that these organic golf balls can remain high performance, even with a green core.

Producing eco-friendly foam blanks that are as durable and high performance as all modern day shapes and materials, Green Foam Blanks has already
provided blanks to some of the industry’s top surfboard manufactures, including Matt Biolos, Channel Islands, Rusty, Doc, Timmy Patterson and Pat Rawson. Green Foam Blanks are now manufactured at Just Foam in Oceanside, Calif.

This is an astonishing solution for the surf industry, particularly in California, as it has been calculated that between Los Angeles and the Mexico border nearly 1,000 surfboards are produced every day. Additionally, about 20% of the foam used to create these boards ends up in landfills along with the toxic materials used to finish each board, resulting in an enormous amount of waste produced by the surf industry, an industry that profits off of surfers which ironically enjoy a natural relationship with the ocean and nature.