Maude Barlow, an influential and well-respected activist on issues pertaining to safe and clean water, came to SU on Tuesday. She spoke before a large audience in Hendricks Chapel. Her speech was very interesting as she talked about our diminishing amount of water. I often thought of the water crisis as simply a problem faced by developing countries that are typically poor. Maude was quick to point out that here, in the United States of America, we have a water crisis that needs to be addressed.
Sadly, this crisis is not widely acknowledged across the board. Currently in the U.S. there are 14 states and 40 counties that are in crisis. This means that change needs to happen. Change cannot simply come from the general population. We need action by the government because even if we conserve, it will not be enough since industry accounts for over 70% of water consumption. This topic hit home for me since I live in a region that is currently undergoing extensive natural gas exploration in an area known as the Marcellus Shale Formation.
In order to tap into the gas reserves huge amounts of water are needed for a process called hydrofracturing. Maude called for a moratorium to be placed on all drilling in this formation. She sited that the misuse of water for this exploration has terrible consequences. Also, she argued that the idea that we would become more energy independent by tapping into these natural gas reserves was not worth the damage of polluting so much water. I have witnessed with my own eyes the amount of water that is used for this process, and also that waste that it creates. I couldn’t agree more with Maude Barlow. I was happy to have attended her lecture.
Here is some additional information about Maude Barlow: http://www.canadians.org/about/Maude_Barlow/index.html
Here is some additional information on hydrofracturing: http://www.citizenscampaign.org/campaigns/hydro-fracking.asp
