[inaudible] >> on c-span tonight, a look at efforts to stop a growing shortage in the worldwide water supply. and ahead of this correspondence dinner a look back at some of this features given over the years by president bill clinton, george w. bush and barack obama. mod barlow's chair of the nonprofit organization food and water watch. five years ago she was an advocate and helping the u.n. declare water and a basic human right. she broke recently but what she calls a global water crisis. this is one hour 20 minutes.

maude barlow is the world's preeminent water rights activist. if you google the phrase water rights activist she is the only person named in the result. she chairs the board for the member of the council of canadians food and water watch and the world future council. she holds 12 honorary doctorates and has received numerous awards for her work on water rights, most recently, the earth care award. she is highly published and her latest is blue future. protecting water for people on the planet forever. please help me welcome her.

[applause] maude: thank you. thank you very much. i am absolutely delighted to be here and thank you for your beautiful words. i am quite embarrassed that is true. a shout out to edward, the founder. it is a true pleasure speaking at a university where your stated goals have to do with peace and justice and that is actually upfront who you are. it is not that common so it is really a treat to be here.

i will talk to you a little bit about the global water crisis and welcome to the high school students, i am happy that you guys came here. then i will talk a little bit about what we can do and what we are doing. i want to say to you that i hate it when people my age come to talk to younger people and say it is doom and gloom and you should forget about it. there is a lot we can do about the crisis i will talk about and i deeply believe that hope is a moral imperative. if i share the bad it is because i will share what we need to do about it. i think we to face the actual dimension of the crisis. we have seen an enormous increase in the amount of water we are using as a human species. basically a 50% increase in withdrawals in a short time.

we are seeing what some are calling running dry, massive pollution of our surface water and even massive pollution of the groundwater. in the united states it is illegal to dump toxic waste into the groundwater sources and massive amounts are being dumped out of sight, out of mind is the thought. i was sharing today with others that mexico city is in real trouble, water wise. they found another aquifer and when they found a cup of this freshwater the engineer drank it and said it is delicious, this is why you don't destroy groundwater because someday it you will need it. we are also damming rivers and pulling up groundwater way

faster than these groundwater sources can be replenished. we are damning river so that most of the major rivers no longer reach the ocean. where freshwater meets saltwater is one of the very important spawning grounds. we are doing this for many reasons but the most urgent demand on water is for food production for the global market economy. it is important for us to start off with the knowledge of something called virtual water. virtual water is the water and vetted in the things we eat or the clothing we wear or computers. up until not long ago, the united nations was saying each person on earth uses x amount of water, and now we understand that is probably 1/10 of the water we really use. 9/10 of the water we use is not something we see or touch. if you sit as a family of four

to a small stake each, you are consuming the equivalent of an olympic sized swimming pool with that stake. we are bringing this now into the equation. what is happening is kind of like a bathtub. there is a bunch of us sitting around with a lot of water in it and we have blindfolds and straws and weird thinking of the water really fast and we think it is fine because there is a lot of water for everybody and then all of a sudden there is no water for everyone, it is called exponential overuse of something. you cannot see it coming. it is not like one plus one makes two, it is the exponential overuse of something finite. last month there was the world economic forum around the world it was held in switzerland and every year they do research ahead of time on what are the

major issues and they talk tonight hundred experts around the world and to a person they said it is the coming water crisis. another meeting of the u.n., ban ki-moon brought scientists together and said what we're doing now is what they call the planetary transformation, as great a change to the world and planet as the melting of the ice age. in a separate study, the statistic that stunned the world at the time was two years ago by 2030, the demand in our world for water. will outstrip supply by 30%. if you stop and think about who will do without it is going to be the poor and the marginalized and the people around the edges the people in massive slums and

people in poor communities, it is also going to be the animals and the species that cannot survive easily without water. i just want to give you a few examples of what we are talking about. india is in terrible trouble 60% of all of their water from farming comes from irrigation. they are pulling up their groundwater and damning the rivers seriously depleting water in some places by five foot per year and literally some of the states are beginning to run dry. in china 75% of all their surface water is polluted and here is a stunning report that since 1990, half of the rivers in china have disappeared. that is partly from hydroelectric whole mining for hydroelectric power that also

because they are using their water, air and soil to use so much of the stuff they send it to the rest of the world. there were two lakes i wanted to tell you about one in the former soviet union, so big it was called a sea. the other in africa, once the fourth and sixth largest lakes in the world now down to almost a bare trickle. it wasn't climate change, it was over extraction. the story that most disturbs me is brazil. brazil, until recently, has been considered the most water rich country in the world. they have the aquifer, the rain forest, a massive area between the rain forest that holds a tremendous amount of water. suddenly, sao paulo, the second biggest city in brazil has gone

try. when i tell you in the last two years, no problem three years ago, it is going dry incredibly fast. it turns out it is because they are cutting down the amazon. what we now know is that when you cut down rain forest or vegetation it changes the hydrologic pattern. the rain forest gives off massive amounts of humidity and vapors and creates flying rivers, a river in the sky held up by air current but can travel thousands of miles and delivers rain to sao paulo and other places. they are cutting down that amazon and rain forest because they are growing massive amounts of sugar cane and soybean to make ethanol to put in cars not only in brazil but around the world.

they are not only cutting down the trees but taking out massive amounts of water in the form of virtual water. basically sending this water away. the great lakes are a very big issue. they live about as far away from the great lakes as i do. they are in very serious trouble. we have invasive species massive pollution but we also have pumping overexploitation of the water system itself. one other study on groundwater says if the great lakes are being pumped as mercilessly as groundwater around the world the great lakes could be bone dry in 80 years. if you have ever stood on the bank of the big lakes, you cannot imagine, but that is why i told you about the sea. it is possible to take a massive

amount of water and destroy it. we are also dealing with future fixation. -- putrid occasion." fication. you heard about it in toledo last year. there are 67,000 square miles of aggro business around the great lakes basin and it is poisoning them. the patch that we thought we got rid of in lake erie is back and it is a serious issue. you probably know that your own ohio river has been named the most polluted body of water in the united states for several years running. there is a tremendous amount of work being done in the state on renewable energy and being a very excited tearing of high-tech solutions to the water problems but we are not stopping

the water pollution at its source. there are 23 million pounds of chemicals dumped into the ohio river last year and we have to find a way to stop this. martin luther king said many wonderful things but one he said was that legislation may not change the heart but it will restrain the heartless. sometimes i say people doing -- see people doing wonderful things but the government will not stop bad people from doing bad things. you cannot catch up because you cannot keep up with the destruction taking place so we absolutely need to be able to regulate. the recent concern that i have is the great lakes are increasingly being used as a carbon corridor to move the dirt and energy on earth by train by pipeline and around the great lakes and most recently being shipped on barges and ships on the great lakes. this is from alberta, we are

fighting hard in our country because this is an oily thick substance and the only to get it through pipelines is to place it through thick chemicals and when they spill to make massive dead zones and create terrible pollution, and now the coast guard and the united states has given the ok to ship on american waterways wastewater from fracking. to my mind, when we know what we know about the water crisis in our world and how we can do this , it continues to be stunning to me. the colorado basin, lake mead, the reservoir created when the hoover dam was built, all of these are down. there is a new nasa study that says they have taken down enough groundwater out of the colorado basin to provide all of the

water needed for all american households for eight years. we just put these wells down and drink this stuff up. there's that massive aquifer that goes down with the u.s. down to the texas panhandle building massive industrial farms to grow corn for corn ethanol and pumping up the groundwater with pumps that were not designed until the late 1950's. before that they had no ability to pull up the groundwater, only in 70 years that we have been able to green -- the terrible price is that the department of agriculture here in the united states said two years ago that the aquifer will be gone in our lifetime. you try to say that people who farm there or live there that it will be gone and people say, i don't know what you mean,

yesterday the los angeles times said, it was their major headline california has one year left of water. are we ready to ration? if you don't believe me, look it up there it can we get up every morning and say it is business as usual? go back to the people in sao paulo, i visited communities and they get their water and water rich areas and they have water from 5:00 to 6:00 in the morning, just a trickle. water again from 10:00 to 11:00 at night and you better do whatever you need to do in those two hours because that is the water that you get. you don't have to go that far away. i have been working with people in detroit michigan who had their water cut off. we actually got a moratorium, we

got the u.n. involved and brought in experts to look at what is happening, but this is an a were a lot of money left the inner-city and most of the people left behind are poor most of the african-american older people are single mothers and they don't have the funds so the city near bankruptcy to the price of water. people cannot afford it so they are coming in and they go house to house and turn the water off. try raising kids or looking after somebody ill with no water. it is not just far away it is happening in the so-called rich parts of our world as well. these are real issues and just the last of the stats, another nasa report that just came out last month reported that there is an unprecedented mega-drought coming in the midwest in the night states and parts of

canada. they say that it will last decades and will be unlike anything in living memory. here is a prediction i have, you have a presidential election coming up, i predict this issue will not be on the table, i predict they will not speak about it right about it or be asked about it in debates. why? i have four thoughts. the first is the myth of abundance, we all learned in grade six that there is a finite amount of water that can never be destroyed, not only the same amount of water but the exact same water that was here at the beginning of the planet and it goes around and around and we all have this diagram in our heads. so we learned that we could not run out.

and in the global north or the west, we tend to think there will always be technology that will fix it, but that myth is deep and rooted and hard to get rid of. secondly, we tend to see water as a resource and we don't see it as the element necessary for life, we don't respect water think about it, care about it -- it exists to serve us. one of the advisors to hoover said america will be great when she learns to conquer her rivers. this notion that water is here to be conquered is really a powerful one. i also think that we have missed -- misdiagnosed the water crisis. if you talk to most environmentalists they will say water is a victim of climate

change induced by greenhouse gas emissions. that is true. the melting glaciers and melting ice packs is true but what they don't say is that when we take water from water retentive landscapes and we move it to where we want it, that is the entire story in california, they said they are moving it all over the place so that they can produce all the almonds. they say water runs a kin to money. we have a situation where we are misdiagnosing what the situation is. and our mistreatment and displacement -- displacement or abuse of water is one of the major causes of climate change and it is past time that we start putting it in the mix and we started talking about water and the way we treat water and how we could undo what we have done as one of the answers to

climate change. finally i would have to say to you in terms of reasons for our politicians, i'm not suggesting it is only in the united states, it is very common if we are just facing a water shortage, it is the dominant model of economic development which says that unlimited growth -- we can just keep going forever, more trade more stuff, more market economy i want my strawberries in january and i don't care where they come from or what it costs. we have this notion that we can have all things at all times and we have created a global economy which is not only creating enormous wealth gaps between the rich and poor -- in the year 2000 there were 111 billionaires in the world and now are are over 2500.

what is that tell you about policies of the 1% for the 1% and by 1%. i would argue that the way that we grow food for a global market is a way of putting a huge pipe into the water system and sucking it up and taking it away. when you grow food and use water to grow food, that water does not get returned to the watershed. so what do need? i call for a new water ethic. it would say that water is not just a resource as i say for our pleasure and profiting convenience, it is the essential element that gives us life and it is to be respected revered and needs to come up with a new relationship with water. if i were clean of the world and could make every leader in the

world do it, all policy, this has to happen at all levels, all policy must ask the question what is the impact on water. our energy using fossil fuels is not only bad for air, it is terrible for water. it uses, destroys and abuses huge amounts of water. growing corn for ethanol takes 1700 gallons -- gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol. maybe that is a better use for your car but the water print it is leaving is not worth it. i would argue that ethanol is worse than fossil fuels because of the way it is treating water and we must set up this air versus water reality, what would it look like if we ask a question about the impact on water of food production.

we would have to stop using chemicals and we wouldn't have any more toledo green water if we stopped having those factory farms and stopped putting those pesticides and narcotics of every kind into animal feed and so on, if we went back to the way that we know how to grow food more local and sustainable family farms and food for local consumption, we could cut the water consumption of the world in half. so what would be the question, what is the impact on water on the straight policies. what if we took into account that all trade policy isn't the same, a white shirt from this country and a white shirt from this country and they both took the exact same amount of water to produce but the water in this country is almost gone and so

that shirt is coming at the price of the local water rights, in this country they still have water so it is not quite the same so we don't ask that question we never ask are we protecting natural resources and people are public trust is a very old concept very deeply entrenched particularly in the northeastern states. less so in the southwestern states to have more of a first to come here and got the rights to water kind of thing. public trust basically says that water belongs to all of us and that governments must detect it in the name of the people for all and future generations. that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want, it is not a comment where you say i can abuse it, we are fiercely going to have to protect this and we are going to have to say what

are our priorities for people having access? you just not -- you just can't have it for anything anybody once it for. i give you an example of vermont, the state of vermont has beautiful groundwater, but a few years ago they had a bunch of bottled water companies setting up a plant and drinking the local water source until it was gone. they brought in legislation that the groundwater is a public trust and they said, to protect it we're going to give priority to people for protection of the echo system and water for local food production, not for agro business to make money sending water and food far away. so they had that hierarchy of access and were able to use their public trust doctrine

because there was a nuclear facility that was leaking chemical into the local water stores and the power company says that is our water and we have water rights in the state was able to say that -- no because we made it a public trust trumps your private right to dump the chemical into the water. it is a very exciting concept that we need to go back to. i have been working a lot with a group of people around the great lakes we want to get them to be declared a public trust and a protected by a regents of that we stop seeing it as your piece and this piece that we see it as a whole watershed. we need common law, common protection, common enforcement totally different in different parts of the lake, together we need to say no more shipping of this extreme energy, we cannot put this water up at this kind

of risk. it is a new way of thinking in terms of watershed governance which they are doing in europe since 2000, all of them must be governed by committees and legislators from all of the countries that surround these water sources. so it is not my water, it will be our water collectively. at a global level i am calling for what i name a marshall plan for water. the marshall plan was a major plan led by the united states to rebuild europe after the second world war and europe was in tatters. everything from rescuing portion -- orphaned children to rebuilding schools and hospitals to putting an economy back together it was an absolutely incredible endeavor. we need leaders to come together and say this is a crisis.

when you read that california has one year left of water, i don't know what people in telephone you think but i think a lot of them will be moving here. we might see american refugees moving from one part of the country to the other. we have to take this seriously. united nations needs to set up a separate process for water, it comes under the umbrella of climate change. if you go to those climate summits, all they talk about our greenhouse gas emissions, which are very important but they don't talk about water as anything but a victim. you don't hear the stories how if you create a desert, or bring in technology and techniques that we know and if you put people to work rebuilding and refurbishing the watershed, the rain comes back. it is miraculous.

there are so many wonderful examples of where we have done this. the key components at the heart of it would be watershed we have to repair those. national and international projects to replenish water retentive landscapes, i am working with a wonderful scientist and slovakia. he had a lot of land that had been destroyed up by bad of farming practices and bad industrial and so forth. he convinced many municipalities and their own government to allow a project where they bring thousands of people to work, rebuilding of the kinds of small berms and dams and so on. they have greened an amazing

amount of land. and at the same in india. a wonderful man they call it the "rainmaker" has brought back water, a massive amount of land. a wonderful engineer in southern australia who convinced his government to let them gather all of the rain water, storm water, put it through massive lagoons planted with the types of plants and they eat bacteria and they have so much water. they have greened the deserts. the animals have come back. it's a miracle. nature will come back if we stop hurting nature. nature loves us. they want to come back. we need food policies that promote agriculture. we have to move away from the form of agriculture we are engaged in a has to be supported by policy in all of our countries. we have exported it. there is an area three times the

size of great britain it in africa alone were foreign interest and corporations have come in an vault of massive amounts of land and water. they are using it to grow crops saturday sell out of the community. -- from two cell -- to seell out of the community. they are destroying water there. we have to learn. people in communities of in asia and africa and south america know how to live with the fluctuations of rain and in the dry season. they know how to conserve and farm dry land. we come in with our technology and we are roiling get. we are fighting to the pipeline, the keystone xl pipeline which is a very hot issue am will remain contentious through the

next election. we are fighting the other pipelines and canada because they want to move it, the tar sand and stuff from the tar sands in alberta to export markets. fracking is a dangerous form of energy. we have to say we can do better. if we asked of the question what is the impact on water? we will come up with the different solutions. i called for in my book is the notion of leaving water as a source of peace rather than conflict. think about it. if you think about a world with the demand of water is going straight up and the supply is going straight down, it doesn't take a genius to figure out maybe there will be a conflict. maybe gary has been. the deep germ of many other conflicts in the world have at least partially to do with water

from syria to egypt to israel palestine, many, many disputes in africa, disputes in asia around water or water is a part of it. it is being used as a weapon of war. the government and syria has cut the water source to the people which is where the original revolution took place. just cut the water. if you want to make war on people, you take away their water supply and there's very little people can do with the absence of access to water. the question would be then, if it can be a source of conflict, could water equally be a source of peace? could we think of water as nature's gift of humanity to teach us how to live with each other? my grandfather was taught to hate your grandfather and vice

versa and i'm supposed to hate you except we both live on this river and it is dying. maybe instead of expanding our energy hating each other, we can come together and build something that same said this river. maybe our kids will live in peace because we come together and a this water source. there's a whole discipline in universities around water and a nature as being forms of peacemaking, forms of negotiating a peaceful settlement, a concept of governance, watershed governance and watershed sharing. instead of saying this is my portion and i will fight it, what is the demand? whatever it is, let's conform to it. let's make it happen. one of my favorite examples is a group called friends of the earth middle east who came together and they have people members from all of the warring

factions in israel, syria, lebanon, all of them. they came together to say -- and we are not what it's a religion or politics, we are going to talk about how to save the water system in our community. it has this else's decibel there are so -- it is been so successful where people have gotten to know each other and how much more in common they have then they might have lots. we also had to promote human laws that reflect the laws of nature. there is a whole movement i am involved in, and awfully interesting people craving called the rights of nature. -- and a lot of interesting people creating called the rights of nature. we all have common ask this equal rights. water has rights separately. even if water did not serve us.

water serves other species and keep water. nature has his own rights. we have to doubt thinking of ours is at the top -- of ourselves as the top of the chain that we are so important. and how -- and have examples in north america and around the world where local ordinances are being declared that the local water or wetland or force hasn't the status of the human being. it has fundamental rights. and and people are coming around. people say you cannot go fishing because fish have rights. i said, yes you can but you cannot fish a species into extinction. yes, you can take water from the watershed but you cannot take so much that you destroy the watershed. you have to leave the integrity of the species or the ecosystem in tact.

that is a change from us for us humans. the more rich with that as a more powerful we get, the more industrialized and urbanized and consumerist it, the more we think of that nature is there to serve us. nature has a really, really rude wake-up call for us. finally and then i will stop so we can chat with each other. we have to make real this fight water as a human rights. we talked about the struggle at the united nations. i was invited in 2008-2009 to be an advisor to the president of the u.s. general assembly. general assembly which is all of the countries together, every year in mac a press -- every year elect a president. and was a man -- a theologian from nicaragua.

he read my book on water. he called and said, before he was president, would you come to new york to meet with me because i want to make water a human rights? i said, hhmmmm, do i have time? can i i get on a plane now? we worked with a lovely man who was the ambassador added that time from bolivia which is a little landlocked country which had been locked into a water war . that water war where people were killed because the world bank had said you have to take a private water company if you want help from us. they brought in a private company and a triple the water -- price of water. they said we will charge you for the water you catch from the sky. these are the poorest people on earth.

85% indigenous. very traditional culture. they were told they had to pay for it. there was a revolution. a war. people were killed. when the new president came in, he assigned -- to the u.n. father miguel and i worked together to build a small team there. pablo put at the resolution into the u.n. general assembly in june of 2010. it was a very brave thing to do. it basically said that water and sanitation are fundamental human rights. water was not included in the 1948 human rights declaration because nobody at the time could see that water would be a problem. it has been pretty clear that and not only is water a huge -- as a huge threat but the

greatest threat particularly to children. after pablo got up, he had affordable -- formidable enemies. my country was a polls. great britain was opposed. all of these companies were opposed. we didn't think we were going to win. he got up to present the general assembly and said, every 3.5 seconds, a child dies a waterborne diseases. then he went like this for he held up three fingers and half a finger. everybody relies a child has died. you could hear people breathing. it was just absolutely amazing. and then the voting started. after the u.n. when they vote, they press and electric button. it comes in a big board. i was standing at the back and the balcony, holding hands with a couple of my staff saying

we're going to lose, it is ok. we will be back in five years. we will win event. i was sure we will going to lose. they vote, i was wrong. 122 countries voted in favor. not one country voted against including u.s. and canada even though they were opposed. they abstained. the place erupted in cheers. it was a fabulous moment. in my opinion, the human family took an evolutionary step forward. we said it is not ok that your child have to dive because of -- have to die because of waterborne disease because you couldn't afford to buy expensive water. the doesn't mean the day after it was adopted and everything was fine? no. the crisis in detroit has happened since then. we out a lot of torture in 1948

and torture exist in our world. it doesn't mean we mean it is ok. when we do not think it is ok, we collectively make the statement. as a human family, the united nations said we will strive so no one has to do without. the only way no one will do without is if we take care of our water better. and we share is more justly. it is our task now. it is a huge and powerful one before us. we have had tremendous success with this in a number of countries. mexico the most recent having adopted human rights to water in their constitutions or separate laws. a number of countries have set out plans to go forward. we had a wonderful success a group of first nations indigenous people in botswana which is the country north of

africa. botswana has the kalahari desert and the kalahari bushmen hunter-gatherers who lived like their ancestors. about 15 years ago, the government tried to get them out of the desert because they found diamonds in the desert. they wanted to fret and they wanted the people on. when the people wouldn't go a came back no matter what, they smash their water wells and said no more water. they passed a law saying anybody bringing water would be put in jail. it was a terrible violation of their human rights. they went to court with a group. they want the right to go back in the desert but if didn't get the right to water. after the u.n. adopted the right to water sanitation, we went back to the supreme court in botswana and armed with this new right that people, the indigenous people there won the

right to have their water opened and they would return to the dancer. it is a really marvelous story of a kind of genocide and people fighting back is saying we know who we are and what we stand for and we stand for and were not take anything less. we do not want to the whole world, we do not want to be competitive, we want to live our lives the way our parents and grandparents and their parents lived area we want and need water for this. when i think about my own life i get a few highlights i can tell you being part of that struggle was a very deeply moving the one for me and everyone involved. so, this vision, this vision i have water conservation, watershed restoration, watershed governance, putting water at the center of every policy and

saying what is the impact on water? if it isn't ok, go to the draw board. nobody has the right to appropriate it for private property for

yourself and find support around you. i believe in joy in activism. the old saying, i am not going to the revolution if i cannot dance. i believe in making community of activists who love each other and care for each other and build a support system and build fun times and build that kind of support. it -- i do a lot of traveling. i see things that will never leave if you do not -- oh. i am forgetting the name of the

slum in kenya. which has almost one million people there. they have what they call flying toilets. nowhere to go to the bathroom. outhouses patrolled by local thu g and you have to pays to use them. it is terrible. they defecate into plastic bags and throw it. it is everywhere you go. plastic backs everywhere. it is just so hard and you come home and say, i am so lucky. i have got a private bathroom i can go into. i have clean water. i have a shower and a bathtub. i am so lucky. i find myself being very grateful for having this. they gratitude -- they gratitude. we have to stop having this sense of entitlement.

2.5 billion people in the world do not have a toilet. i was in a slum in india in calcutta, the old bombay and they said this bathroom here services 5000 people. try to imagine what that means. i cannot even imagine. part of it is being grateful and being humble. we need to be more humble. we need to love nature and put it into the center of our lives and be grateful for it. you had to be consciously grateful. we have to find a joy in the work we are doing a realize it can be tough. but in my mind, you opened the door and you see what is on the other side. some people choose to close it. i do not want to know, it is not my business. i find if you walk through it

and see it, it will hurt. we talked earlier about a wonderful quote by margaret atwood, she said the world is seeing through tears. why ask me what is wrong with my eyes? if you are seeing it, you will be sad a lot. that is a good sad. it gives you off of your -- out of bed in the morning and something to do to make a better. i have enormous help. i am not just saying that. everything i've talked about here is recoverable. nothing is not recoverable if we start to take action now. >> let me start off by saying that you are an inspiration to students like me. i am a junior in the high school around here. we are very conscientious about our environmental stand. we are focusing on our watershed . we have a natural prairie and we

do a lot of things like that. i am wondering how i can personally in my life -- and my school itself can reduce its footprint as well? maude: first of all, thank you. if you say i am an inspiration you are an inspiration to me. it's important we had this intergenerational friendship. it is no particular generation is going to solve this alone. i expect you know about what you did at school. you know in your home and your school and the appliances that are water saving in the toilets and that stuff. we'd no cutting down on the length of the showers. the way we grow -- what we have in our gardens are you all of this really matters. this is a water rich area. it is not as crucial here as in some dry places. all of those things, what food we eat, cutting down the amount

of meat is one of think we can do. trying to support local food producers. local organic food is extremely important in terms of the water footprint. helping find energy sources that do not hurt water. all of those are incredibly important. it is that sense of knowing that you have a role to play that is most important. you are ready are there. you are thereby being here. you have to make that kind of conscious decision. i really appreciate it. i think i spoke earlier to some of the high school students talked about a 95-year-old friend of mine who has been involved in every single fight including the vote for women. she said when any of us gets tired, just cut that out now. she said the comment and activist is a lifelong commitment and you do it every day and not a fashion you take

off. she will say, fighting for justice is like taking a bath. you do it every day or you stink. [laughter] maude: having made the decision to be part of this, you are part of the answer and you will come up with answers i have not gotten. give something back, new technologies, wonderful work being done on a new technologies for pavement, parking lots. for recovering dead water unbelievable technology. small technologies that are marvelous. finding a career where you can find a place to make a living and make a difference is fabulous. just being conscious of the way you are is great. you inspired me back. yes? >> i work with the local food & water watch and met with many

other groups along the ohio river to keep the engineer from approving shipping, waist down the ohio river. despite our efforts, they approved it. my question is, what if anything can we the people do to make them change their mind? maude: it is very difficult when governments refuse to listen. i stop and think what we know about fracking and wastewater. i do not know if you guys know about -- a community in quebec, a small community and a train a year and a half ago carrying frack oil and wastewater left the track and plowed into the small town late at night. it was close to midnight into a local pub that was very popular.

it killed, incinerated 47 people. it blew up. that is what we know about frack oil and wastewater. it is explosive. it is a very toxic -- not only toxic in slow motion, it is explosive. and they are talking about moving it as stored it around the great lakes because they frack so much a do not know what to do with the fracking wastewater. they are talking about -- the coast guard has given the ok to moving onto barges on our water. ships have accidents. it is going to get into our water system. ships have accidents. it is a form of insanity to let it happen. how can communities stop it? we have to make these decisions separately. sometimes, we have to put our bodies off in a peaceful way on the line. i was involved in the 350.org

some of the protests in front of the white house a few years ago. i was arrested and my husband would say -- i would say i will get arrest a he said, no, you will not. it goes on your record. then you are suspected of all kinds of terrible things. and try to explain a customs officer, it was a protest. they do not care. i promised bill i would get arrested in canada at the first chance. a year or so ago, we held a huge protest. not just keystone. it was understood ahead of time you know exactly, if you do this, you will get arrested. royal canadian mounted police, they where the big hats, if any of you come to canada, you will

see them in front of the parliament. but today police parliament. that is what we were dealing with. they put up barricades as a few cross, we will arrest you. their way whole lot of officers getting ready. we had music. i told my lawyer husband nothing was going to happen. it was boring and no point of him coming. i forgot to tell him i intended on getting arrest. he shows up. all of the people planning to get arrested and it was an amazing day. we had music and speeches. then a group of us went to this stage, this fits and i crossed -- fence and i crossed this barricade. and as tall, big officer looking down at me and said

ma'am, i would like you to step back. i said, i can't. he said, i would like you to. i said, i can't bring healing to down and said my wife is a huge fan of yours and if i come home essay i arrested you, i am in huge trouble. [laughter] maude: i said would you like a note? i said you are going to have to arrest me. i am sorry. i do not know what to do. he pointed at handcuffs on me. he said i put them on tight. i said that is ok i think they are supposed to hurt. i am not suggesting you go get arrested. there are times when we have to stand up and find ways to be there and say, this old forest or aquifer or lake or whatever isn't a mind. it does not belong to me.

it does not belong to you guys. it belongs to future generations among other species and the ecosystem. we have to find a stronger ways to expect at this. and think of all of the changes that have come. the women's movement, the civil rights movement. all of them have come through. not one of them has been won by a benign sitting down as said it will be nice to have equality. people fought hard for these changes. we will have to fight hard for our water. >> you mentioned the buying by a corporation, bolivia as an urban system. i had been reading up until a year or two ago about more and more of an effort by multinational water corporations to do that in the united states

in indianapolis and other places. what is happening lately with the attempt to privatize public water system? maude: it is an ongoing struggle. i have no problem with the corporation of or engineering company building pipes. we are talking about private companies running water service for profit and i'm against it. the idea is basically that the profit motive should not be involved in the delivery of water services because it is an essential public service and a public trust and human rights. what we are saying to the private sector, help us in our wonderful technologies that you can come up with. there are many roles for the private sector what i believe not a good one. we have 2 big companies, one in france and have their american counterparts.

the parent company of these 2 are the biggest in the world. and web infighting them for years. a number of municipalities and both for countries have tried water privatization and decided it was a mistake. atlanta, georgia signed a 20 year contract and after two years cut it and said get out. the water was coming out brown and is smelled and they were charging a fortune. every study we have seen, every single study shows privatize water is way more expensive than water run by a government agency. they have to build profit and find 50% profit. either they will cut corners or surface or cut -- a service or cut the workers and raise the prices. that is right across the board. however, on this front, they

call it re-muncipilization. there are 185 countries around the world that have re-mun cipialized including 40 cities in paris. two years ago, they took their water back from these two french water companies and are running it. within a year they were able to lower the water prices for the residential usage. it has been an ongoing struggle and one we continue to fight. let me tell you and i know we have to stop soon because i am aware of our time. there is a trade agreement which is the united states, european union agreement based on a model agreement between canada as a european union which we have been fighting which gives

corporations from the other countries the right to sue your government if they do not like what you are doing. if ttip is signed between europe and the united states, any municipality their privatize their water will have a hard time changing. these companies consume for compensation. anyone who wants to learn more about that please go to public citizen's campaign which has information on the implication of trade. i have a whole bunch of stuff in my book on the implications of these trade agreements to the right to go back to a public system was it is been privatized. another ongoing struggle. i do not have a crystal ball to see where it will come out. common sense tell people it is better to keep democratic control. water is needed for life. we better keep democratic

control of it all the time. >> we will make this the last question. >> good evening. i am wondering if you have any particular vision of how american policymakers and maybe how and when they can really begin to tackle the problem of meat consumption in the united states? maude: meat consumption, is that what you ask? meat is very water intensive and the way we tend to produce meat in north america is more and more in these factory farms. then in turn hurts to the animal because it is terrible treatment. in turn destroy massive amounts of water. again, i was send you tell food & water watch. they have a wonderful project, a

wonderful campaign on farming. i mean people will choose are not choose to eat meat and those are personal decisions. on how these farms are run and the destruction to animals and to local water. the more we can learn about what we are eating and the impact on nature, the more we can think through beyond just that it looks good. where did it come from? and those questions i was talking about, what is the impact on water? when we start answering that, we are different answers on a lie. >> join me in thanking maude barlow again. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-span is proud to present

the winning documentaries. student cam is c-span's annual competition that encourages students to think critically about issues that affect the nation. students were asked to grade their documenting that document is on "the three branches a you," to show how a policy, law or action has affected them. tate hawver and cameron tuech from florida are one of our second prize winners. it focused on national parks and waterways. ♪ >> this is the river. here, lies 40,000 acres of rich and abundant ecosystem. it has remained one of central florida's most desired natural resources serving thousands of visitors. the men and women caring for the

park on a local level to maintain the pristine environment of the park. it is beautiful but fragile. mostly, the river is wild and scenic. >> ♪ do you ever think how we got here today it sounds funny ♪ >> the source of the river is here at the park. we spoke to one of the park rangers on how important the spring water is to the park. >> when you look at our acreage i would say 95% of our visitors come in here for the springs. people come in the summer to enjoy the water. to cool off. to have a barbecue along the

hill. >> of their trade-offs of having so many visitors at the park. >> it is impact. every footprint leaves a mark on the ecosystem. working here is a balance between the use of people and protecting the resource. that is an ongoing phase. critics have you walk a fine line between recreation and conservation? >> feeling that the potholes. there is a wide range of activities that rangers do. a prescribed burning for healthy growth in the ecosystem. a healthy, clean creek. it is the main thing. >> it is something that has to be tackled day today. >> the high demand for water by

the population and growing areas has defeated some of the springs. fertilizers and other man-made chemicals that get into the water from houses and the people in the area also contribute to the growth of algae and some exotic vegetation. >> what exotic species has been a serious problem for florida water? >> hydro up is an exotic species. it was introduced into the water systems. it tends to grow and overtake the native vegetation. >> to understand more, we spoke to the park biologist. >> category one species category two alters ecosystems. category one is worse.

it alters ecosystems and will dissuade. >> one reason it is difficult to control because of how quick is pressprich >> is a little piece of breaks off it [indiscernible] the next thing you know the water takes a downstream and in find a new place. it grows so prolific. nutrients, sunlight. the environment is perfect here. >> we are very conducive. we how warm water. >> these conditions are made worse by chemical runoff. >> hydreala is a plant for you put fertilizer on a plant. >> of this threat -- this threat

[indiscernible] federal, state, and local governments are tackling this issue by creating standards and regulations. >> one such is -- growing concerns over water quality in florida. >> the epa have created numerical water criteria to replace a former system. it was limits on the amount of phosphorus and nitrates in water. >> if we keep letting phosphorus goal of, nobody wants to swim. >> a senator put -- >> regulations imposed by washington are undermining the work being done at the state level to manage our lands and natural resources and protect our air and water. >> [indiscernible]

barbour books champion doug commitment of a's -- champion the commitment. >> there is money out there. it will give us help. the parts that need it. >> between all of the agencies involved, the federal epa, state and county governments, there are a lot of regulations being put in and enforced to maintain their health of the river. >> it has been so will attend because of the operation. -- cooperation of various state and local agencies. >> [indiscernible] salt water thrives and kills them. [indiscernible] >> we all work for the same state. having the relationships with each other and helping each other with a need it.

>> the driving force behind preserving is the strong support of residents and visitors. >> one of the last bastions of civil county. if something were to happen to it, it would break my heart. >> we have great people working on it and many agencies working on it. i think the way forward is going to be up. >> to watch all of the winning videos and learn more about our competition www.c-span.org go to www.c-span.org and click on student cam. tell us what you think about the issue these students addressed on facebook and twitter. chris on the next "washington journal," a look a u.s. educational policy. with randi weingarten. also libertarian national commitment -- committee chair

talks about the political and ideological views of the libertarian party and successes and challenges and where the parties stand heading into the 2016 presidential election. a discussion of the role and influence with anita mcbride and karen tumulty. we will take your calls and look for your comments on facebook and twitter. live every day at 7:00 eastern. >> this sunday, senior editor of the weekly standard entry ferguson on his writing career, the geode p present -- the gop presidential and what voters are looking for. >> they want somebody who looks like he has stood up for them. i am amazed as to the degree in which primary voters on both sides are motivated by

resentment. and if the sense of being put upon. and of those people really do not understand us. here's a guide who does understand us and will stick with it. that happens on both sides predict hillary clinton will give her own version. i don't think that was actually two through 30 years ago. resentment has always been part of politics, but the degree to which it is almost exclusively the motivating factor in truly committed republicans and democrats. >> the white house correspondents dinner takes place saturday, april 20. he can watch live coverage here on c-span speeches from president obama and sicily strong. -- ce