Blue Future

A recipient of Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award and a Lannan- Cultural Freedom Fellowship, Maude Barlow is head of the Council of Canadians and founder of the Blue Planet Project. The author of sixteen books, including Blue Gold and Blue Covenant (both available from The New Press), she is on the boards of Food & Water Watch and the International Forum on Globalization. She lives in Ottawa.

Advance Praise for Blue Future:"With multiple examples of international arguments in favor of open access to water, Barlow makes a rousing case for what will be one of the key environmental challenges of the twenty-first century."—Booklist"[Barlow's] work will inspire equal parts outrage and encouragement in anyone who concerned about this most vital natural resource."—Publishers Weekly"In a book as clear as a pristine mountain stream, Maude Barlow lays out a practical and inspiring vision for how we can defend water—the source of all life—from the forces of death. For decades Barlow has been on the front lines of this critical battle, and her insights on how water can serve as our guide to a more just, sustainable world are a gift to us all."—Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine"The world’s leading water warrior has issued a call to arms and a road map to transform our economies and priorities to protect our most precious resource—water. The book is an explosive rethinking of our future that could save the planet."—John Cavanagh, director, Institute for Policy Studies"If you read one book this year, make it Blue Future! Brilliant, compelling, and optimistic, it’s the seminal work on averting the world water crisis. Barlow’s enthralling account of the water justice movement’s remarkable progress brought tears, and her road map for the future gives me hope."—Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and author of Foodopoly"We are water—it inflates our cells, dissolves nutrients, transports materials, and enables metabolism. Once again, Maude Barlow delivers an urgent warning that we are treating this priceless liquid in ways that are unjust, unhealthy, unsustainable, and suicidal."—David Suzuki, scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster"Maude Barlow is a force of nature. Blue Future is the inspiring climax of her visionary trilogy on the world water crisis. With the world teetering on the brink of a devastating water crisis, humanity urgently needs the vision, wisdom, and solutions in Blue Future."—David R. Boyd, author of The Environmental Rights Revolution"Maude Barlow first establishes water as a human right, and then takes us through the titanic struggle, country by country, to make that right come alive. It’s jolting, compelling, astonishingly comprehensive, and beautifully organized. No one but Maude could have written this tour de force." —Stephen Lewis, author of Race Against Time"Blue Future offers yet another clarion call to action [and] challenges all citizens to embrace water as a public trust. We owe much to Maude Barlow, a great Canadian and a leading global voice for public water."—Paul Moist, national president, Canadian Union of Public Employees"Blue Future is by far the most up-to-date treatise on threats to the world’s dwindling freshwater supply. The scenario [Barlow] presents is scary. . . . Fortunately, she also proposes what must be done to prevent the corporate control of water. An extremely powerful book."—David Schindler, professor of ecology, University of Alberta"Passionate, encyclopedic, prophetic, hopeful—no one knows the planet’s water better than Maude Barlow. And nowhere has she set out the world’s water crisis more starkly than in Blue Future."—Alanna Mitchell, author of Sea Sick