Qualifiée de «fléau de la Terre» par l’ONU, la pénurie d’eau est une menace bien réelle: 3,6 milliards d'individus en souffrent déjà l'équivalent d'un mois par année et, si rien n'est fait, c’est une personne sur deux qui n’aura pas accès à l’eau en 2050. Chaque jour, au moins deux milliards de personnes dans le monde boivent de l’eau contaminée par des excréments et plus d’un demi-million d’entre elles en mourront chaque année. Militante de la première heure pour le droit à l’eau, Maude Barlow a sillonné la planète pour défendre ce bien commun et dénoncer les visées des grandes entreprises qui font main basse sur l’or bleu, que ce soit pour l’embouteiller et la vendre à prix fort ou pour alimenter des industries polluantes, avec de graves conséquences sur les populations locales et leur accès à l’eau potable. Pour Maude Barlow, écologie et droits de la personne ne font qu’un, car plus nous malmenons l’eau, en la pompant de façon excessive et en la polluant, moins il en reste à partager équitablement. Devant l’inaction des États, Maude Barlow appelle à faire barrage à la privatisation de cette ressource vitale par les Véolia, Suez, Coca-Cola et autres Nestlé, en embrassant le modèle des communautés bleues. Né au Canada avant de se répandre ailleurs dans le monde, ce mouvement citoyen vise à faire reconnaître le droit à l’eau et à s’assurer que la gestion des services d’eau demeure sous la gouverne publique. Par cette invitation à faire de l’eau un trésor collectif, Maude Barlow en appelle à un monde plus bleu, une communauté à la fois.

Most agree on the urgent need for climate action, yet we are often divided on how to stop the destruction of the natural world. Earth for Sale exposes the danger of governments giving over this responsibility to powerful private interests, namely the same energy, chemical, agribusiness, and bottled water corporations that brought us to this ecological brink. Their answer? Put a price on nature and bring it into the market. Under the inviting language of "nature-based solutions" and "ecosystem services," this financialization and commodification of nature takes many forms: carbon trading; debt-for-nature swaps; water pollution trading; biodiversity credits; green, blue, and wildlife conservation bonds; plastics offsets; water futures; and more. Renowned activist Maude Barlow, who sounded the alarm decades ago on the corporate assault on water, argues the financialization of nature is dangerous and surprisingly few understand the implications, including many in environmental movements. With detailed examples and meticulous research, Earth for Sale unmasks this insidious new form of corporate plunder. We must not allow the movement to protect nature and biodiversity to be handed over to private interests whose driving motive is, and always has been, profit.

"Canada's best-known voice of dissent." - CBC "It's time we listened to the Maude Barlows of the world." - CNN In this timely book, Barlow counters the prevailing atmosphere of pessimism that surrounds us and offers lessons of hope that she has learned from a lifetime of activism. She has been a linchpin in three major movements in her life: second-wave feminism, the battle against free trade and globalization, and the global fight for water justice. From each of these she draws her lessons of hope, emphasizing that effective activism is not really about the goal, rather it is about building a movement and finding like-minded people to carry the load with you. Barlow knows firsthand how hard fighting for change can be. But she also knows that change does happen and that hope is the essential ingredient.

"Maude Barlow is one of our planet's greatest water defenders." - Naomi Klein, bestselling author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine The Blue Communities Project is dedicated to three primary things: that access to clean, drinkable water is a basic human right; that municipal and community water will be held in public hands; and that single-use plastic water bottles will not be available in public spaces. With its simple, straightforward approach, the movement has been growing around the world for a decade. Today, Paris, Berlin, Bern, and Montreal are just a few of the cities that have made themselves Blue Communities. In Whose Water Is It, Anyway?, renowned water justice activist Maude Barlow recounts her own education in water issues as she and her fellow grassroots water warriors woke up to the immense pressures facing water in a warming world. Concluding with a step-by-step guide to making your own community blue, Maude Barlow's latest book is a heartening example of how ordinary people can effect enormous change.