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:

Participant Media Takes Burning Man by Blair Golson

Hurricane Gustav: Photo Update by Joshua Tremblay

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 5 Tips for Biking to Work

Obama Acceptance Speech: Green Energy Highlights

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Andy Kondrat:

A Survey of the Top 10 Greenest Presidents

HP Designs Laptop for Wal-Mart, Reduces 97% of Packaging

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Jon Popham:

Open Mic Reveals Right-Leaning Journalists’ Real Views

Comcast Appeals FCC Net Neutrality Decision

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Giulia Rozzi:

Getting What You Want

Female Amputee Competes in Beijing Olympics

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Gina Telaroli:

Heart Not Happy with Sarah “Barracuda” Palin

Top 10 Cancer Movies That’ll Make You Stand Up

Wal-Mart issued a challenge to manufacturers: reduce the packaging your product comes in. And Hewlett-Packard, HP to you and me, definitely rose to the occasion. On HP’s new dv6929 computer, the company has reduced the packaging an astounding 97 percent compared to conventional laptops. That’s more than a little impressive. Treehugger.com gives us some details:

Gone are the styrofoam inserts and enveloping cardboard. What’s left are couple of plastic bags as the throwaway items, and the computer itself nestled in a reusable bag from 100 percent recycled fabric. Perhaps even cooler is the fact that HP can put three of the computers in one shipping box, which translates to a lot fewer pallets and fewer truck miles.

So not only is the computer itself in environmentally-friendly packaging, the packaging of the packaging is environmentally friendly.

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Yes, convenient! This time it is good news!

Mega chains including Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Safeway and Whole Foods Market have installed solar panels on roofs of their stores. They are racing to beat the Dec. 31st deadline to receive tax credits but in this case, I say run faster!

The NY Times reports that fewer than 10 percent of big chain stores have solar panels.   But if Congress renews a favorable tax provision and more states offer incentives, the companies promise to put solar panels on almost 100% of their stores.   Which is almost every store in the country.

takepart and learn how you can bring renewable energy to your home

Related:
Giant Retailers Look to Sun for Energy Savings

Inconvenient Truth of the Day

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:

Sudan Leader Charged with Genocide: What Are the Reactions? by Wendy Cohen

Inconvenient Truth of the Day: Al Gore Speaks on Climate Change by Joshua Tremblay

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Nicole Hughes:

“Farms in the Sky” a Solution to Global Food Crisis?

Wal-Mart Launches Eco-Bling Project

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Andy Kondrat:

NYC To Bring in 300 Hybrid Taxis Per Month

Coolio To Educate Students On Climate Change

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Jon Popham:

Pickens’ Plan for Energy Independence

On “Rent” Closing, the East Village, and Gentrification

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Gina Telaroli:

Batman Morals: Top 5 Lessons from the Capped Crusader’s Films

Emmy Nominations Kick “The Wire” to the Curb

Wal-Mart is stepping up to answer the call for more eco-friendly bling. Jewelry has always held a special place in our cultural history, but the industry doesn’t exactly have the best reputation for being environmentally friendly and conflict-free. The movie Blood Diamond comes to mind, but did you also know that a single 1/3 ounce 18-karat gold ring creates 20 tons of mine waste? The retail giant is working with Conservation International, as well as the mining companies Rio Tinto and Newmont Mining to launch a new website called Love, Earth, which will allow customers to trace the path of their jewelry from mine to manufacturer to retail store.

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Yesterday was MayDay (as Katie pointed out) and so we can reflect on the struggles of workers and the power of protest and action I wanted to share the following video by the Meerkat Media Arts Collective, a group that wants to create a permeable creative community, where everyone’s voice is heard, where they bear the weight of our collective stories together, where they adapt to the needs of each other, where everyone is inspired and stimulated to create and extend and collaborate - and they do that through making awesome movies a lot of the time:

Also - I’m a Meerkat! Go below the fold to some more of our work:

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Is there no end to Michael Pollan’s influence? Now he’s got Rand Waddoup, Wal-Mart’s Senior Sustainability Director, pondering the sorry state of our current food chain. Waddoup posted an entry on Wal-Mart’s corporate blog today entitled “Sustainable Industrialized Food?” :

Having finished Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma just a few nights ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic and in general about food, health, and sustainability. Quoting Michael Pollan from In Defense of Food, “We are eating a lot of edible food-like substances, which is to say highly processed things that might be called yogurt, might be called cereals, whatever, but in fact are very intricate products of food science that are really imitations of foods.”

So Waddoup, whose big box boss is the number one food retailer in the U.S., wants to know what Wal-Mart can do to make things better:

I know food, in general, is a very sensitive topic for a lot of people, but what do you think should and can be done in the short term to make the industrialized food chain better? What products should Wal-Mart have that they don’t to meet your desires for a more sustainable food assortment? If you could choose one item you would want removed from stores, what would it be?

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Mehedi Hasan, a field investigator for the Washington D.C.-based Worker Rights Consortium, went to Bangladesh to investigate some of the country’s 3,000 garment factories and to advocate for the rights of its more than 2 million workers, mostly women, who make the clothing we wear. Today, we must investigate the conditions under which Hasan is held, and we must protect his rights. Hasan, was arrested on Thursday 24th January by the Bangladesh security forces accused of instigating garment workers. He has not been allowed to see his family since. The military-backed interim government has been harassing and cracking down on workers and organizers. Unions are illegal, the security forces operate under emergency rules and most civil rights remain suspended. Less than 5% of the Bangladesh garment industry complies with international labour standards. If you see an “I love my Wal-Mart” shirt, it may have been made by children aged 10 to 13 making less than 10¢ an hour. Hasan is only the latest victim. So and demand the immediate release of Mehedi Hasan.

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That’s right, you can buy Jesus and listen to him recite scripture.. well when Wal-Mart gets more in stock anways - apparently everyone wants to buy Jesus?! : It’s funny how Jesus is used these days, the first passage quoted by the action figure in the video also shows up in a place you wouldn’t expect it - on the bags from a store that specializes in getting young girls to wear their cheaply made/somewhat revealing clothes and lawsuits : Forever 21… Check out the diagram below :  

I can’t help but cheesily think about what Jesus would do if he knew he was such a hot commercial property these days… I may not be the most devoted church-goer but I was raised Catholic and from what I remember, I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t support sweat shop labor and being turned into an idol like doll… But hey, that’s just me I suppose.