1.

WHAT:  Digging Deeper XLII: Blue Gold
WHO:  Led by Mark Jensen
WHEN:  Monday, March 3, 2008 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405

***********************************
United for Peace
of Pierce County (WA)
Study Circle:
March 3, 2008
***********************************

DIGGING DEEPER XLII: BLUE GOLD

The 18th-century economist Adam Smith liked to point out that diamonds are useless for survival, yet cost a fortune, whereas water, which is vital to life, for reasons of supply and demand costs almost nothing.  But in the era of neoliberalism multinational corporations have been working the supply angle to turn water into a huge source of profit.  Moreover, because water is a prime necessity of life, it is an important source of conflict in arid regions, and the prospects for water conflict pose an enormous challenge to 21st-century humanity.  In Blue Gold, two Canadians examine corporate efforts to privatize water supplies.  On Monday evening, March 3, Digging Deeper XLII will examine an argument for treating water differently from other commodities.

—Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water (New Press, 2002; paperback 2003).  "The world's water supply is fast falling prey to corporate desire for the bottom line, the authors argue (Barlow chairs Council of Canadians, a public advocacy group; Clarke is the director of the Polaris Institute of Canada).  Indeed, 'the human race has taken water for granted and massively misjudged the capacity of the earth's water systems to recover from our carelessness,' the authors write.  Even if that's a hard statement to prove, the authors marshal an impressive amount of evidence that corporate profits are increasingly drinking up precious water resources.  In some countries, water has already been privatized, leading to higher rates of consumption and depleted resources.  And in other places, poorer residents actually pay more for water than their richer neighbors.  In the meantime, Pepsi and Coke's sales of bottled water are taking water away from municipal supplies.  The authors cogently argue that water -- a basic necessity -- should be treated differently from other commodities and not placed into private hands.  In the end, their argument becomes a screed against the power that multinationals wield in our economically liberalizing world: in free trade treaties, they argue, governments effectively yield control over water rights to corporations, with harmful consequences for both economic parity and nature.  The authors are vague about what the average person can do to help stave off this crisis, but those concerned about the environment and about the costs of economic globalization will find much to get riled up about in this book." —Publishers Weekly.

MEETING SCHEDULE -- Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

No charge for participation.  Participants should procure their own copy of the book.  Contact: Mark Jensen (jensenmk@plu.edu; 253-756-7519).

Regular meetings of United for Peace of Pierce County are held at 6:30 p.m. on 1st Thursdays and at 7:00 p.m. on 3rd Thursdays at First Congregational Church, 209 S. “J” St., Tacoma, WA.

***********************************
United for Peace
of Pierce County (WA)
Study Circle:
March 3, 2008
***********************************