Olympics Olympics Olympics! We love the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between when it comes to the 2008 Beijing Olympics here at TakePart.   It’s reason enough not to miss our Top 10 Stories about the Olympic Games, which we’ve been reporting on in the months leading up to now. Catch the best in TakePart Olympic news below:

1) 2008 Olympic Torch Relay Will Create 11 Million Pounds of CO2 by Nicole Hughes

The 2008 Olympic torch relay hasn’t galvanized a lot of warm fuzzy feelings and hand holding this year. Opposition to China’s treatment of Tibet has inspired international protests, with some dissenters even managing to snuff out the torch and delay the tour… [click here for the full story]

2) Red Tide In Yellow Sea Threatens Olympics by Jon Popham

A red tide in the Yellow Sea off the coast of China is threatening events planned for the 2008 summer Olympics. The massive algae bloom, shown left, threatens to prevent the scheduled Olympic sailing regatta from taking place as scheduled less than six weeks from now… [click here for the full story]

3) China Cuts Beijing Traffic in Half to Reduce Pollution Before Olympic Games by Andy Kondrat

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are just about three weeks away, and to attempt to lower pollution levels as much as possible before the games start, China is removing half the cars on the road… [click here for the full story]

4) Mao’s Out, Time to Capitalize on the Olympics by Gina Telaroli

The Chinese have taken Chairman Mao, the founding father of Chinese communism off of their 10-yuan bill and replaced him with a picture of their new National Stadium. While there aren’t a lot of these new bills being made and they are supposedly just for the duration of the Olympics I can’t help but see this as another sign of China’s crumbling communism… [click here for the full story]

5) China Tightens Pollution Controls for Olympics by Blair Golson

Bejing just announced a new set of anti-pollution measures aimed at staving off the concerns of Olympic athletes who aren’t too thrilled by the prospect of competing in uniforms made for Ebola outbreaks…[click here for the full story]

6) Beijing Covered in White Smog One Day Before Olympics Begin by Andy Kondrat

The Olympic Games start tomorrow, and though China has made concerted efforts to cut pollution down before the games begin, today the residents of Beijing woke up to a white smog, a phenomenon occurring when pollution is so thick that a skyline is virtually invisible… [click here for the full story]

7) Lacing Up for the Environment at the Beijing Games by Nicole Hughes

There’s been a lot of buzz about pollution and the Beijing Olympics here at TakePart. Performance concerns and overall sustainability concerns have inspired Olympic athletes to lace up for the environment with GreenLaces, a advocacy group that couples athletics and environmental awareness… [click here for the full story]

8 ) Beijing Pollution Isn’t Gone, Just Moved Outside of Town by Andy Kondrat

You may have noticed quite a bit of information flowing from this website concerning the city of Beijing and the problem of pollution leading up to the Olympic Games, but by no means is this problem limited to China’s capital city. As the city itself has been working to clear the air around the area the games will be held, high-polluting factories haven’t simply shut down around Beijing - they’ve been moved to outlying regions… [click here for the full story]

9) An Olympic Flag Bearer for the US, A Champion for Darfur by Gina Telaroli

Tonight marks the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a celebration of the competition and camaraderie that will define the coming days. When you’re watching keep an eye out for the US flag bearer Lomong Lopez. Lopez has a pretty amazing story… [click here for the full story]

10) Everything I Learned About Beijing Pollution, I Learned on YouTube by Nicole Hughes

Everything I learned about pollution in Beijing, I learned on YouTube sort of. Sure I’ve read about it - but it’s one thing to peruse an article and it’s another to see rivers of toxic waste streaming out of a factory and killing all vegetation within a two-foot radius. Sadly, many people in China are forced to use this untreated toxic water for drinking and watering crops, and pollution has made cancer the number one cause of death in the country… [click here for the full story]