AVAILABILITY: Usually ships within 2-5 days

Publication Date: 2002
Publisher: New Press
Binding: Paperback
Topics: Corporate Rule, Democracy: Theory & Practice, Nature, Visioning the Future

Description: In a shocking exposé, 'Blue Gold' shows why, as the vice-president of the World Bank has pronounced, "The wars of the next century will be about water."

Increasingly, transnational corporations are plotting to control the world's dwindling water supply. In England and France, where water has already been privatized, rates have soared and water shortages have been severe. The major bottled-water producers - Perrier, Evian, Naya, and now Coca Cola and PepsiCo - are part of one of the fastest growing and least regulated industries, buying up fresh-water rights and drying up crucial supplies. Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, two of the most active opponents to this trend, show how the corporate giants act in their own interest and how, contrary to received wisdom, water flows uphill to the wealthy, who can afford it.The consumption of water doubles every 20 years - more than twice the rate of the increase in human population. 'Blue Gold' captures in striking detail the forces behind the increasing depletion of the world's fresh water, and the human and ecological impacts.

Maude Barlow is the national volunteer chair of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization. She lives in Ottawa. Tony Clarke is the director of the Polaris Institute of Canada and chairs the committee on corporations for the International Forum on Globalization. He lives in Ottawa.

Review(s): "In this book, as in life, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke combine visionary intellect with muckraking research and a concrete plan for action." - Naomi Klein, columnist and author of 'No Logo'

"An angry and persuasive account." - Business Week

"Gives coherence to the vigilante citizen movement that emerged from the tear gas." - Anita Roddick, founder and co-chair of The Body Shop

"Globalization was supposed to be the 'end of history.' But Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke tell us the exciting story of a new history being born." - Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist, activist leader, and author of numerous books including 'Water Wars'

"This well-researched book provides a sobering, in-depth look at the growing scarcity of fresh water and the increasing privatization and corporate control of this nonrenewable resource. Barlow and Clarke describe how transnational corporations (Bechtel, Vivendi, et al.) through their water subsidiaries are making water a growth industry for the 21st century. The authors criticize mandatory privatization of water services as a condition of debt rescheduling and proposed international trade agreements for negatively impacting public ownership of water, public-sector water services, and governmental authority to regulate. Although the investigative reporting is similar to that in Marq de Villiers' 'Water' and Jeffrey Rothfeder's 'Every Drop for Sale', the authors' sophisticated economic analysis of water as a scarce commodity distinguishes this book from the other two. The concluding chapters set forth goals, principles for safeguarding the world's water, and steps for water security in more detail than de Villiers' water strategies. The proposals for corrective legislation, lobbying, and citizen environmental action make this book a highly recommended purchase for public and academic libraries." - Library Journal