Author: Maude Barlow
Tony Clarke/
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 278
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187496363
Description
The vice president of the World Bank has pronounced, The wars of the next century will be about water. This book tells why.
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 freshwater rights and drying up crucial supplies. Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, two of the most active opponents to his trend, show how the corporate giant act in their own interest and how, contrary to received wisdom, water only flows uphill to the wealthy, who can afford it.
The consumption of water doubles every twenty years-more than twice the rate of increase of human population. Blue Gold Captures in striking detail the forces behind the increasing depletion of the world’s freshwater and the human and ecological impacts.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Treaty Initiative
THE CRISIS
Red Alert
Endangered Planet
Dying of Thirst
THE POLITICS
Everything for Sale
Global Water Lords
Emergent Water Cartel
Global Nexus
THE WAY FORWARD
Fightback
The Standpoint
The Way Forward
Notes
Index