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 our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan Surfaces 120 Years Later

Hallelujah For American Idol, Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen

* * *
Nicole:

Google Gives Free Voicemail to San Francisco Homeless

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Turnes 80

* * *
Giulia:

Patrick Swayze’s Cancer Battle

Koby Bryant’s PSA for ASR

* * *
Gina:

Reese’s Empowering Bracelet

“Chop Shop” - Dreams In a Place of Despair

* * *
Kerry:

Bamboo Laptop: Will Apple Be Green with Envy?

The Explosive Truth About Twinkies

LA Lakers Kobe Bryant debuted his PSA for the organization Aid Still Required on ESPN today.

Aid Still Required (ASR) is a non-profit, humanitarian movement focused on rebuilding communities through sustainable solutions in the aftermath of natural disasters and human crises. They believe everyone, everywhere, is entitled to live in dignity, safety and health. They view post-crisis situations as opportunities to do just that. By approaching restoration on an ecologically-friendly basis and utilizing a region’s native environment, Aid Still Required “builds back better” and builds back green.

For more on Aid Still Required visit http://www.aidstillrequired.org/

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Don’t miss these excellent posts on some very engaging and thoughtful topics - from going green at the office to Julian Beever to dystopian film telling us to take action now. Check out our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Katoucha’s Body Found: Model Helped African Women Escape Mutiliation

Julian Beever Brings Art to New Orleans Sidewalks

* * *
Nicole:

Heath Ledger Nick Drake Video for “Black Eyed Dog” Hits Web

Top 10 Ways to Go Green in the Office

* * *
Giulia:

Crate & Barrel Goes Green

The Black Comedy Project

* * *
Gina:

Top 10 Dystopian Future Films Telling Us to Take Action Now

Going to “The Edge of Heaven” with Fatih Akin

* * *
Kerry:

Sustainable Songstrees Sue West’s Rural Revival

No Impact Home A Hit At Ecobuild Exhibition

Celebrity chefs including Paul Rankin, James Martin, Cyrus Todiwala and Jimmy Doherty are lending their support to WRAP’s “Love Food Hate Waste” campaign to provide consumers with information on simple steps that can be taken to reduce food waste, and its impact on the environment. The campaign recently released a new research survey which shows 90 percent of consumers are unaware of how much food they waste. In the UK alone, 6.7 million tons of wasted food is shipped off to landfills. That’s almost $16 billion dollars wasted on food that is never eaten each year.

and find out how you can reduce your own food waste with these practical solutions from WRAP.

Crate and Barrel recently introduced more initiatives to help make homes more eco-friendly.

Among their earth friendly changes C & B has:

• Introduced more eco-friendly upholstery
• Without more expense, offered two wood Outdoor collections that are certified as sustainable by nonprofit organizations that oversee the conservation and responsible management of millions of acres of the world’s natural forests
• Offered several teak and mahogany collections available that are now Tropical Forrest Trust supported
• Phased out the use of white bleached board for shipping boxes in favor of a more eco-friendly renewable fiber that contains post-consumer recyclable material
• Discontinued using petroleum-based packing peanuts

Hopefully these changes will inspire other stores to follow suit. For more on Crate & Barrel’s earth friendly initiative and to purchase some green goodies for your home visit http://www.crateandbarrel.com/

According to a recent UCLA study, California’s film industry is the state’s second largest polluter. (Next to the oil industry, adding insult to injury.)

And the AP newswire reported: “No amount of public service announcements or celebrities driving hybrid cars can mask the fact that movie and TV production is a gritty industrial operation, consuming enormous amounts of power to feed bright lights, run sophisticated cameras, and feed a cast of thousands.”

But fear not, many actors, actresses, directors and producers are trying to help environmental efforts and the Dailygreen.com has a wonderful article giving credit to many of the green moves being made in Hollywood.

Some are using humor to spread the green love like in this hilarious short by will Ferrell and friends (NOTE: this video has language and content that may be offensive to some):

And others are doing their green part by making significantly earth friendly workplace changes such as:

Read the rest of this entry »

Roses in honor of Rosa Parks make a great gift because it allows you to give someone something beautiful, support a beautiful cause, and honor the legacy of a beautiful woman. Organic Style, an eco-friendly, socially responsible, Fair Trade on-line boutique, is selling the Freedom: Rosa Parks Rose bouquet, and donating a portion of its proceeds to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which Rosa co-founded. The Institute’s youth leadership “Pathways to Freedom” program teaches students the stories and values of the civil rights movement, and encourages them to engage in social justice and, in turn, encourage social justice in their own communities, as they do in the video above made entirely by students in the Pathways Program.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tom Bergeron, the Emmy award-winning host of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, has signed on to host a series for the Discovery Channel’s new all-things-eco-all-the-time channel, Planet Green.

The show, called Supper Club, will feature celebrity chefs cooking up eco-friendly feasts for celebrity guests who’ll give us the latest in green gossip and current events as they dine on all sorts of presumably sustainable dishes. Hope they don’t all talk with their mouths full.

For inspiration on how to host your own sustainable dinner party go to sustainabletable.org.

by Kerry Trueman

The smell of ammonia or bleach has long been synonymous with “clean,” but consumers are turning up their noses at harsh chemical cleansers in favor of gentler products from eco-friendly upstarts like Seventh Generation, whose sales are set to top $100 million in 2008.

So Clorox, not wanting to see its sales tank, will launch a line of “natural” cleansers called Green Works in January, including a plant-based toilet bowl cleaner. It’s the company’s first new product line in two decades, proving that consumer demand for healthier household products is finally turning the Tide.