Tomorrow night, as part of Get Lit!, Maude Barlow will be here for The Battle Of Blue Gold at Lair Auditorium at Spokane Community College, 7pm. And Down To Earth is proud to have the winners of our Earth Day Essay Contest read their pieces prior to her appearance.


Barlow is a Canadian author, activist and a hero for water rights. She is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, a citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. She is also the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works internationally for water. She chairs the board of Washington-based Food & Water Watch and is an executive member of the San Francisco–based International Forum on Globalization and a councilor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council.

Most of us don't realize the average human needs thirteen gallons of water a day - but the average North American uses almost 160 gallons. And that New Mexico might not have any fresh water in ten years. Or that in less than fiteen years, two-thirds of of the global population will suffer from water shortages. What does a water shortage mean? "Well, we already have water refugees in the world. Thousands and thousands of people who are seeking water and so moving from where they have run out of water, or they created deserts, to places where there is water," said Barlow at Big Think. "Already, there are two billion people living in parts of the world that don’t have enough water. Well, one billion who have absolutely no access to clean water at all. So, they die. No can't afford water, because they are pricing it."

 

Barlow has received ten honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Award, and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. In 2008 and 2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63^rd President of the United Nations General Assembly. Her global and social justice work has benefited communities throughout the world, and her books have been published in over 50 countries.

She is also the best selling author or co-author of 16 books, including the international best seller Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water. Here's a little information about the book from Get Lit! Programs:

Blue Covenant

In a book hailed by Publishers Weekly as a “passionate plea for access to water activism,” Blue Covenant addresses an environmental crisis that—together with global warming—poses one of the gravest threats to our survival.

How did the world’s most vital resource become imperiled? And what must we do to pull back from the brink? In “stark and nearly devastating prose” (Booklist), Maude Barlow—who is featured in the acclaimed documentary Flow—discusses the state of the world’s water. Barlow examines how water companies are reaping vast profits from declining supplies, and how ordinary people from around the world have banded together to reclaim the public’s right to clean water, creating a grassroots global water justice movement. While tracing the history of international battles for the right to water, she documents the life-and-death stakes involved in the fight and lays out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water-just world for all.

As people around the world turn their attention to the effects of climate change, Blue Covenant is a timely and important reminder for us to take heed of the global water crisis’ impact on humans and the natural world.

For more information on Maude visit:  http://www.canadians.org/about/Maude_Barlow/ or to purchase her book Blue Covenant, visit: http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1674 

Also, check this video on Blue Covenant:

 

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