Scott James

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Website: http://twitter.com/ecoscott

Profile: Scott James is a green copywriter living in San Francisco. He enjoys good coffee, innovative minds and challenging conversation. An experienced whitewater rafting and backcountry guide, he is passionate about water issues and the environmental web.

Water Footprint Network Releases The Water Footprint Manual

Posted on 09. Mar, 2010 by Scott James.

The Water Footprint Network (WFN) is a Netherlands-based international organization that helps individuals and corporations better understand how and where water is used. Their mission is to promote the transition towards sustainable, fair and efficient use of fresh water resources worldwide. Sponsoring partners are as diverse as the Coca Cola Company and the World Wildlife Federation. Their recently released Water Footprint Manual is a living document that covers a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint accounting. The manual covers everything from calculating water footprints for individual processes and products to water sustainability assessment and response options. [...]

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First Images From European Space Agency’s SMOS

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by Scott James.

Last November the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) with the mission of improving our understanding of the Earth’s water cycle. The goal of SMOS mapping soil and salinity variables is to better our understanding of the exchange processes between Earth’s surface and atmosphere, our ability to create accurate weather and climate models, and improve both agriculture and water resource management. This week SMOS sent back its first images of “brightness temperature,” which measures the radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface. [...]

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EPA Action Plan for Great Lakes Funded at $475 Million per Year

Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Scott James.

Last year President Obama, who knows the Great Lakes well having started his political career in Chicago, proposed a clean-up plan for the Great Lakes. This week the EPA met with governors of Great Lakes border-states to outline an “action plan” for 2010 through 2014 that focuses on eliminating invasive species, cleaning up pollution and remediating wetlands. The action plan will provide $475 million per year in funding for improving the Great Lakes ecosystem, and Obama added another $300 million to the program for next fiscal year. [...]

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Lower Danube Exceeds Green Corridor Targets

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Scott James.

It’s great to hear a green success story when so much of the news around the world is grim about the health of Earth’s water and wetlands. An ambitious wetland protection and restoration program for Europe’s Lower Danube River is just such good news- the project to create a “green corridor” along the entire length of the Lower Danube is ahead of targets. The Lower Danube Green Corridor Declaration was signed in 2000 by environment ministers from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. Overall, the Declaration planned to increase protection for 775,000 hectares of existing protected areas and protect an additional 160,000 hectares. And it’s working. [...]

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Pacific Coast Collective Creates Ocean Conservation and Coastal Climate Change Action Plan

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Scott James.

The Pacific coast is a region of amazing beauty and resources with a unique set of concerns. In 2008, Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Washington created the Pacific Coast Collaborative with a vision to “create a formal basis for cooperative action, a forum for leadership and information sharing, and a common voice on issues facing Pacific North America.” This week at the inaugural PCC Leaders’ Forum the Pacific Coast Collaborative states ratified two action plans: 1) Innovation, the Environment and the Economy and 2) Ocean Conservation and Coastal Climate Change Adaptation. The Ocean and Coastal action plan is a powerful, unified statement about how the West Coast will adapt to and move forward in response to climate change issues. With 52 million people living in the 5 states and $2.5 trillion GDP, the PCC views itself as a “mega-region” that would rank as the world’s 7^th largest economy and has geographically unique coastal concerns. [...]