In what appears to be a last ditch effort to appeal to Iowa voters, John McCain has changed his public stance on ethanol. Up until now the Arizona senator and Republican Presidential candidate had a been a vocal opponent of providing Federal subsidies to the corn based fuel. However in a speech at the University of Northern Iowa yesterday, McCain told the crowd, “We’ll invest in all energy alternatives: nuclear, wind, tide, solar, ethanol, biofuels.” McCain’s Vice Presidential running-mate Sarah Palin has also gotten in on the pander bear act, telling an audience during an Iowa speech, “harnessing alternative sources like the wind, and the solar and the biomass and the geothermal and the ethanol.”

This flip flop over “the ethanol”, as Governor Palin puts it, illustrates to me at least exactly what is wrong with McCain campaign these days. Like many, in the past I had admired the principled stances John McCain had taken, often against his own party to stand up for what he thought was right. But unfortunately those days are long gone for the Arizona Senator.

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Do you have a favorite place to get carryout from? I have a few - living in New York City almost means that you have to.   One thing that gets on my carryout loving nerves is when my yummy dinner is placed into non-environmentally friendly containers.   UGH

It is with that frustration that I was super excited to learn about Vegware - the awesome makers of sustainable disposables! They work to make economic, eco-friendly, and high quality options for the food service industry

From their website:

The first part of 2008 saw significant increases in the prices of food and oil, increased use of bioplastics, and large scale introduction of biofuels. It is no understatement to say that the effects have been felt globally. Any long-term global strategy to ensure sufficient, affordable, sustainably-produced food and energy has to encompass a large number of interacting issues including our use of oil, use of land and ocean, methods of agriculture, renewable energy, and waste management

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Let the biofuels debate begin! The video below shows biofuel advocates Josh Boger of the Biotechnology Industrial Organization and Joe Trippi, political consultant, discussing concerns over the link between biofuels and the reduction of food stock and increased food prices. If we’re willing to “keep the conversation going,” and invest in new technologies to improve the functionality of biofuels with regard to food shortages/prices, then we’ll all be better for it. See David Roberts’ response (of Grist Magazine) after the JUMP—>

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Fuel, and what fuel to use, has been the issue of the day for quite a few days now. With campaign ads about rising gas prices and offshore drilling plus new debates over whether biofuels are good because they help the environment or bad because they take food away from people, new solutions are no doubt in need.

Over at The Nation, Frances Cerra Whittelsey has an idea, one that I think is swell - people should eat less meat! It all comes down to one simple fact:

While there are daily references in the media to the diversion of corn to fuel-making, there’s hardly ever a mention of the fact that feeding our livestock uses 50 percent to 60 percent of the American corn crop. [The Nation]

More than that, the meat industry plays a pretty big role in global warming:

The shocking fact is that production of beef, pork and poultry is a bigger part of the climate problem than the cars and trucks we drive, indeed of the whole transportation sector. [The Nation]

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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:

Arrested in Development by Wendy Cohen

Is Google Making Us Dumber? by Blair Golson

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 5 Ways to Green Your July 4th

Greenopia: Eco-Guides For Your City

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Andy Kondrat:

Hypermiling Contest Winner Gets 124 Miles to the Gallon

Rise in Fuel Prices May Lead to Dirtier Energy Sources

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Jon Popham:

Red Tide in Yellow Sea Threatens Olympics

Mercedes-Benz Ditching Gasoline Cars by 2015

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Giulia Rozzi:

46664 Concert: Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela

Denise Richards Likes to Share

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Gina Telaroli:

Top 10 Movies for the 4th of July: For Patriots and Cynics!

The Radical and Beautiful Journey of Wall-E

Mercedes-Benz has announced plans to cut gasoline powered automobiles out of its lineup entirely by the year 2015. The German automaker that brought you the internal combustion engine powered car, with Karl Benz’s landmark invention in 1886, is setting its sights on the next innovations in automotive technology for the 21st Century and beyond. Mercedes intends to invest over $14 Billion before 2014 in research & development on biofuel powered engines, hydrogen fuel, & clean electric powered plug in cars and their necessary accompanying battery technology innovations.

In the near term, Mercedes is planning on releasing its F700, which debuted at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, powered by a turbocharged DiesOtto engine that gets mileage of 44 MPG in a luxury car. The DiesOtto is an engine that provides virtually the same fuel efficiency as diesel out of gasoline without having to fit the machinery with the expensive after treatment systems which can drive up the cost of diesel car production. The F700 will also be able to run on biofuels.

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Beef is a bigger eco-burden than ethanol, say Swedes, who’ve seen large increases in the sale of ethanol-run cars over the last few month. The increasing demand for ethanol in the country highlights the ever more prevalent debate on ethanol’s effect on food prices and the food shortage crisis. The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet printed a series of articles and studies arguing that beef production does a lot more to exacerbate eco-problems than ethanol. According to one study conducted by Gothenburg’s Chalmers University, only 1 percent of the world’s arable acreage is planted with crops to be used in ethanol production, while 1/3 of all global arable acreage (500 million hectares) is used for milk and meat production – even though milk/beef products make up only around 15 percent of our total food basket.

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Corn + magic = gasoline? So that’s how they do it! Stephen Colbert educates the nation about the debate on ethanol and climate change on an installment of The Word from earlier this week. Enjoy below, then and learn how alternative fuel (really) works.

Is BioTown USA running on fumes? Some say that the ambitious farming hamlet of Reynolds, Indiana, which set out to become the nation’s first energy independent town, has hit a few bumps on the road to their renewable Shangri-La.

Since 2005, Reynolds has been working toward generating its own electricity and gas for all homes and businesses by using a variety of renewable resources ” from municipal trash to hog manure, and even town sewage. Called BioTown USA, the project was designed and fast-tracked by the Indiana Department of Agriculture. One of the major appeals of the project was its promise of decreased energy costs to the residents of Reynolds. With crude oil around $100 a barrel right now, a barrel of biomass at $40 holds promising relief for rising fuel costs.

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Maverick mogul Richard Branson made history on Sunday when a Virgin Atlantic 747 flew from London to Amsterdam fueled, in part, by “a biofuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil,” according to the AP:

“This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected,” Branson told the AP, adding that the flight would provide “crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint.”

Branson’s experiment comes at a time when the airline industry’s admittedly massive carbon footprint is drawing ever greater scrutiny; the European Union recently reported that greenhouse gas emissions from aviation have increased by 87 percent since 1990 and now account for about 3 percent of the EU’s total emissions.

But the debate about whether biofuels are a boon or just a boondoggle is heating up, too, as more and more studies suggest that growing biofuel crops may, in fact, make global warming worse.

One thing is certain, though; the airline industry is in dire need of alternative jet fuels that burn more efficiently and emit less pollution. Branson’s biofuel trial may or may not be a step in the right direction, but at least he’s thinking about new ways to get folks where they’re going.

Learn more about Virgin Atlantic’s Sustainability Challenge here.