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:

Ocean Dead Zone Getting Bigger by Wendy Cohen

Top 10 Ways to Green Up Your Kids by Martin Musatov

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Nicole Hughes:

2008 Olympic Games: Top 10 Stories from TakePart

Happy Meals: 5 More Organic Alternatives to Fast Food

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Andy Kondrat:

China’s Pollution Affects Alaska’s Air Quality

JetBlue CEO Cuts His Pay In Half

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Jon Popham:

Yet Another Reason to Get Off Oil…Russia

Detroit Home Sells for $1

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Gina Telaroli:

Synchronized Swimming Gets Olympic Treatment in “Sync Or Swim”

Parting the Murky Waters of Race in the Swimming Pool

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]

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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:

Obama Global Love Fest by Martin Musatov

Interview with Lawrence Lessig by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 10 Ways to Green Your Move

Climate Change Activist Superglues Himself to UK Prime Minister

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Andy Kondrat:

Can Junk Mail Be Green?

Google Maps Adds Walking Directions

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Jon Popham:

Recycling Building Materials Greens Up Home Improvement

CA Hotel Owner’s Anti Same-Sex Marriage Donation Brings Boycott Calls

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Gina Telaroli:

Naming a Generation

Ebert and Roeper Exit: Time to Give a Lady the Thumbs UP

Google Maps, which very recently added a “public transit” option to its directions options, has gone a step further (no pun intended and I’m sorry) and added “walking” to the list of ways to get from here to there.   Here’s a screenshot captured by treehugger.com:

This is pretty exciting news for those of us that would get driving directions in a place like San Francisco and then try and figure out which streets were one-way that actually could be walked.

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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.   The Associated Press reports:

Under the two-month plan, half of the capital’s 3.3 million cars will be removed from city streets on alternate days, depending on whether the license plate ends in an odd or even number.

The plan came into effect yesterday, apparently creating slightly clearer skies and lighter traffic.   In addition to the traffic limitations, China is adding 3,000 busses to the roads by the time the Games start, which will increase the daily bus capacity from 12.5 million to 15 million people.   Beijing has also opened new subway lines, which are anticipated to carry 1.1 million people every day during the Olympics.

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The New York Times reported on Saturday that as gas prices surge upwards, public transportation use is on the rise throughout the country.   Now that gas prices are no longer just a nuisance, but a very real and very serious financial issue, the Times reports that,

Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges - of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year - are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.

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