Tomorrow night, as part of Get Lit!, Maude Barlow will be here for The Battle Of Blue Gold at Lair Auditorium at Spokane Community College, 7pm. And Down To Earth is proud to have the winners of our Earth Day Essay Contest read their pieces prior to her appearance.

Barlow is a Canadian author, activist and a hero for water rights. She is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, a citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. She is also the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works internationally for water. She chairs the board of Washington-based Food & Water Watch and is an executive member of the San Francisco–based International Forum on Globalization and a councilor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council.

Most of us don't realize the average human needs thirteen gallons of water a day – but the average North American uses almost 160 gallons. And that New Mexico might not have any fresh water in ten years. Or that in less than fiteen years, two-thirds of of the global population will suffer from water shortages. What does a water shortage mean? "Well, we already have water refugees in the world. Thousands and thousands of people who are seeking water and so moving from where they have run out of water, or they created deserts, to places where there is water," said Barlow at Big Think. "Already, there are two billion people living in parts of the world that don’t have enough water. Well, one billion who have absolutely no access to clean water at all. So, they die. No can't afford water, because they are pricing it."

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