Maude Barlow educates people all over the world about the crisis of water privatization, and documents how commodification of water results in soaring rate increases and severe water shortages. She says, "Life requires access to clean water; to deny the right to water is to deny the right to life." In her work she particularly advocates for the world's poor, who in some cases pay more for potable water than do wealthier people in the same communities. She travels and lectures widely, arguing that water is a basic right and should not be a commodity.Ms. Barlow is the National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada's largest citizen's advocacy organization with over 100,000 members. She is also founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works to stop commodification of the world's water. She is also a Director with the International Forum on Globalization, a San Francisco based research and education institution opposed to economic globalization. Ms. Barlow is the recipient of numerous educational awards and has received honorary doctorates from four Canadian universities for her social justice work. She is the best-selling author or co-author of fourteen books. Her most recent publications are Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water, Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water (with Tony Clarke), now published in 40 countries; Profit is Not the Cure, A Citizens' Guide to Saving Medicare; Making the Links: A Peoples' Guide to the WTO and the FTAA (with Tony Clarke); and The Canada We Want: A Citizen's Alternative to Deep Integration.She was awarded a Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship in 2005. Ms. Barlow resides in Ottawa, Ontario.You may learn more about this and other events on the Lannan website. Less