Sometimes we forget that even with all our technology and high-techery and the like, still a huge amount of our consumer goods arrive in the United States through plain old ships.   In fact, a whopping 40% of our goods arrive through the ports of Long Beach, Oakland, and Los Angeles.   And now, it looks like California legislators are close to imposing a $60 fee on every container coming through these ports, expecting to raise $400 million a year.   Some of this money, say the legislators, would go towards fighting pollution.

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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. This week we celebrated some of our own favorite top 10 bloggers who work night and day to provide us up-to-date info on films, literature, and feminist news. Don’t miss these exciting and informative blogs, as well as some of our most popular stories of the week.

Katie:

“La Misma Luna Under the Same Moon,” Not the Same Old Movie

Top 5 Eco-Friendly Gadgets for Under $50

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Nicole:

Top 10 Literary and Book Blogs

NBC11 First Wind Powered TV Station

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Giulia:

Top 10 Feminist Blogs

Horton: The New Mascot for Pro-Life

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Gina:

Top 10 Film Blogs

Top 10 Films I Would See If I Was At SXSW

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Kerry:

Our Pharmaceutically Fouled Water Supply

Top 7 New Sins Against God’s Green Earth

Beginning March 7th, NBC11 of the San Francisco Bay area became the first television station in the United States to be powered entirely by wind. Using these wind farms for 100 percent of their electricity is part of the studio’s “EcoLogic” campaign, designed to show employees, local businesses and viewers alike that they too can improve their energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint on the environment.

“NBC11 kicked off the campaign internally in January with an appeal to employees to reduce electricity consumption by simply turning off unnecessary lighting and shutting down computers and equipment when not in use.

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A brand new homeless shelter in Oakland, California, features the latest in green design, as the New York Times reports:

The facility, Crossroads, which will accommodate 125 residents, may be the only “green” homeless shelter built from the ground up. It has a solar-paneled roof, hydronic heating, artful but practical ceiling fans, nontoxic paint, windows that can be opened to let in fresh air, and desks and bureaus made from pressed wheat.

It took ten years for the East Oakland Community Project to obtain the $11 million dollars it cost to build the state-of-the-art Crossroads, but it’s an idea whose time has come. Poor communities have long been subjected to “environmental racism,” i.e. the practice of using their neighborhoods as a dumping ground for undesirable, pollution-generating facilities. As a result, folks in less affluent communities are routinely exposed to higher levels of contaminants of all kinds.

The homeless people who will be moving into Crossroads just as soon as the beds have been delivered are looking forward to getting off the grimy streets and into their new clean tech home. One soon-to-be resident, Paul MClendon, told the Times:

“It’s going to be one beautiful place”It has respect for the environment, global warming and saving trees.  

 Learn more about the East Oakland Community Project’s mission here.