The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Participant Media Takes Burning Man by Blair Golson

Hurricane Gustav: Photo Update by Joshua Tremblay

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 5 Tips for Biking to Work

Obama Acceptance Speech: Green Energy Highlights

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Andy Kondrat:

A Survey of the Top 10 Greenest Presidents

HP Designs Laptop for Wal-Mart, Reduces 97% of Packaging

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Jon Popham:

Open Mic Reveals Right-Leaning Journalists’ Real Views

Comcast Appeals FCC Net Neutrality Decision

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Giulia Rozzi:

Getting What You Want

Female Amputee Competes in Beijing Olympics

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Gina Telaroli:

Heart Not Happy with Sarah “Barracuda” Palin

Top 10 Cancer Movies That’ll Make You Stand Up

Have you seen Rhianna’s “Shut Up and Drive” video? I mean, who doesn’t like fast chicks working on fast cars? Pass the Coors Light! Still, can you imagine how much more fun the video would be if someone superimposed a series of climate change factoid pop-ups over Rhianna’s car-wriggling ballet? Dare to dream OR simply click on the video below:

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These top 5 tips for biking to work, courtesy of our friends at Grist, will help you in your eco-pursuits to green your commute, save on gas, and even shed a couple of summer pounds you may have put on while sipping those backyard pina coladas during your “staycation.” Besides, the fall season is the best time to get out on two wheels and enjoy some beautiful colors and cool, crisp air. Check out the full top 5 after the JUMP—>

1) Get a map: familiarize yourself with bike-friendly streets and view routes in your area that other bikers use via a Google search or sites like Map My Ride. You can also sign the petition asking Google Maps to add a “bike there” option to their public transportation directions. Read the rest of this entry >>

Obama’s acceptance speech garnered an impressive 38 million-plus viewers last week - that’s more than the number of people who watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games, the final American Idol, or the Academy Awards this year, according to Yahoo News. If you missed it, a video of the full speech is below, followed by some of the green energy highlights mentioned during the Senator’s acceptance speech after the JUMP—>

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Boston passed a measure on Tuesday that will require all taxis operating within the city to go hybrid by 2015. Mayor Thomas Menino stated that the new requirement is an essential step in improving Boston’s air quality.

Currently, Boston’s fleet of 5,500 vehicles is made up of mostly Ford Crown Victorias. Boston’s Clean Air Cabs program was a huge success, with cabbies saving an average of $40 per day on gas, but not everyone is happy about the overall measure. Many among the 370 cab operating companies in Boston are concerned with the limited trunk space of the new hybrid alternatives, and question how this will affect picking up luggage-toting travelers to and from the airport. Additionally, the batteries on hybrid taxis will need to be replaced every few years, costing owners an estimated $5,000 per replacement battery. Read the rest of this entry >>

How’s that ‘Zack Attack’ tattoo working out for ya? Like many adventurous souls with questionable judgment, you’re probably considering tattoo removal to erase the remnants of what you once thought was cool, but perhaps turned out to be a failed attempt at irony and a advertisement for your unusual love of 90s sitcom reruns.

Eco-conscious folks who are seriously considering tattoo removal will be relieved to know that there are green options out there that won’t damage the environment. Lasers are used to remove tattoos, but in order to prevent the skin from overheating and scarring, tetrafluoroethane (a greenhouse gas) is applied to the skin as a coolant. As an alternative, John Stuart Nelson, Medical Director of the Beckman Laser Institute, suggests using a carbon-dioxide spray, which works just as well as tetrafluoroethane, but is better for the ozone layer. Read the rest of this entry >>

Amy Goodman, American broadcast journalist and host of the acclaimed Democracy Now! news program, was unlawfully arrested at the Republican National Convention on Monday along with two of the show’s producers. Her crime, according to the Democracy Now! press release, was attempting to free Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar as they themselves were being unlawfully detained while covering street demonstrations at the RNC. Video footage of the arrest is below, followed by more information from the DemNow! press release:

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The ladies of LUSH, from Stockholm to San Francisco, have bared all to protest excess packaging in the products we purchase and consume this week. The video below gives a little more detail about the sultry eco-stunt, and a lot more detail about what’s going on behind those aprons:

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Hurricane Gustav delivered only a slight blow to New Orleans on Monday, making one reality show recipient of a new eco-friendly home in the Lower 9th Ward a very relieved woman. A 68-year old grandmother who was left homeless after Hurricane Katrina was given a brand new storm-safe green home by the Canadian reality show Make It Right: New Orleans. The reality show worked with Brad Pitt’s Make It Right NOLA foundation to create the prototype and deliver it to its new owner. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new four-bedroom home was built to withstand New Orleans’ next 100-year hurricane. Read the rest of this entry >>

A noteworthy Daily Kos diary takes a look at Joe Biden’s position on a variety of environmental issues, including offshore drilling, capping emissions standards, and nuclear energy. Biden’s overall message: we need solutions for the future. Here’s a snippet from his July 2008 op-ed in the Delaware News Journal (Wilmington) about the problems with offshore drilling. As previously reported here at TakePart, it’s McCain’s solution to the present energy crisis, but Biden has a different view:

First, the oil companies in this country now hold 7,000 leases to drill offshore, yet only 20 percent of those leases are producing oil. That is 68 million acres for which they already have the rights to drill. Nearly 80 percent of our offshore oil is already available for leasing — approximately 54 billion barrels total. They could be drilling in these areas, but they are not.

Assuming oil companies drilled in new areas, it would take at least a decade for new production to begin. Just last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration concluded new drilling would have no impact on oil prices before 2030.

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