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!

Nicole Hughes:

U.S. Media Ignores Link Between Midwest Floods and Global Warming

Top 10 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution

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Andy Kondrat:

Dubai to Build Rotating Positive Energy Tower

Bioethicist Peter Singer Tackles World Food Shortage

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Jon Popham:

Americacorps Workers Assist Flood Ravaged Town

Australians “Out-Fat” Americans

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Giulia Rozzi:

Progressive Book Club

Oprah Recommends “A New Earth”

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Gina Telaroli:

Human Rights Watch 2008 Film Festival Update

SilverDocs 2008 Update

The New York Times reports,  The swollen Mississippi River surged over nearly a dozen levees in the St. Louis area and flooding vast areas of farmland, as the region’s growing crisis pushed corn and soy prices toward record levels. The runaway river claimed one Missouri town late Wednesday night when it broke a levee in Winfield, just outside of St. Louis, leaving a 150-foot hole, deluging the small community and sending a surge of water downstream toward the next levee. Crews of firefighters spent the night evacuating residents, in some cases by boat, as workers fought to contain the river further south.

St. Louis is the next major city in the path of the surging river, which is expected to crest at 40 feet there on Saturday.

takepart and donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Related
Mississippi Surges Over Nearly a Dozen Levees
U.S. Corn Soars to Record as Crop Flooded
Mississippi River threatens more Midwest levees

Americorps disaster response workers are laboring hard to save the flood ravaged town of Clarksville, Missouri. An Americorps team led by Katie Rooney and Kyle Henning has been coordinating volunteer and community liaison efforts out of the City Hall of the small Mississippi River community, population 490.

“I think they are awesome,” Clarksville Alderman Mike Russell, who doubles as the town’s emergency services manager, told MSNBC. “I can literally tell you that if it was not for them running the City Hall end, we would be much worse off.”

Americorps is a Federal National Service program created by President Clinton in 1993. Members specialize in a wide array of domestic issues ranging from environmental programs to literacy initiatives. The Clarksville team was part of a disaster response unit based out of St. Louis, Missouri who had just finished assisting tornado victims in the Southwest portion of the state when they were called to help out with the disastrous Mississippi flooding in Clarksville. Americorps members receive healthcare, a few hundred dollars a month, a modest educational grant and numerous ready to eat meals for their invaluable service to pressing issues confronting the country.

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Cedar Rapids, Iowa- The city that “would never flood” is 19 feet under. According to the AP, the Cedar River poured over its banks yesterday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets. Officials estimated that 100 blocks were underwater in Cedar Rapids, where several days of preparation could not hold back t he rain-swollen river.

A downtown hospital was forced to evacuate and all 176 patients, including about 30 patients in a nursing home facility at the hospital, were being transfered to other hospitals in the region.
takepart by donating to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Related:
Waters in Flooded City in Iowa Likely to Crest Soon
Cedar Rapids struggles to endure historic flood
Midwest floods expose aging, weak protection
Inconvenient Truth of the Day