Water is the creator of all life on earth, connecting all life from the smallest microbe to the largest creatures through a shared pulse of life. Our world is in a crisis of water quality and quantity augmented but not caused by climate change. This crisis is largely created by a materialistic obsession with efficiency, profit and control. Corporate powers are rushing to privatize the world’s waters; cities are running out of water; and consumers’ water habits are drastically changing as a result of advertising and the commodification of water. There is a lack of collaboration and cooperation as countries attempt to solve their water problems in isolation from their neighbors. The water crisis and climate crisis both step from similar causes. In Water Talks, Betsy Damon explores and exemplifies how we can become conscious and begin to understand the issues of this crisis on both a micro and macro level while taking charge for ourselves and our communities. Damon advocates for a public water supply and for the dismantling of the agenda to privatize control of water entities and institute a means of collective control. Her book seeks to educate and empower communities to reclaim their waters.
If we are to solve our world’s water problems, there must be an integration of all possible approaches including social, economical and physical actions, rooted in the science of water as the center of all life. Water Talks provides a deep resonant understanding of how to reclaim our waters while sharing what has contributed, and continues to contribute, to our water crisis. Damon endorses the need for international policies and strategies in order to maintain and share the waters for all life to survive.
Water Talks provides crucial concrete steps that assist both activists and everyday citizens in working towards restoring the quality of our public water supplies. The book provides a basic knowledge for the future and calls out ways in which we can fight the privatization of public water supplies and the vast speculation that drives the water extraction industry.
Water Talks embraces water for the reality that it is the absolute center of existence, not a pipe nor dam, but the whirling, throbbing mover of life. For 35 years, Damon has committed herself as an artist, a community organizer, a designer and an educator of water in all its complexity. She has partnered with scientists, Indigenous leaders, government and corporate authorities, artists and citizens alike, weaving together the strengths of all into a powerful and collaborative force.
The book is uniquely multidimensional and multimedia drawing in collaborations between art, science, and ecology. It’s visually accessible, containing illustrations along with Damon’s own visual work. Different ages and education levels can easily comprehend it. It is a source of inspiration; a primer; and a textbook for even the most experienced activists. Water Talks contains an A-Z on how to get to know your waters, organize around them, and restore resilience and complexity to water systems. It is intended to empower people with clear information and well-defined solutions rooted in common sense and for the common good.
Damon marries real knowledge about the nature of water as the creative force of all life with practical, concrete steps toward communities’ reclaiming their water supplies.
Damon’s book touches on water’s sheer magnitude of importance and why it is crucial, now more than ever, that we begin to pay attention. Water has rooted Damon in becoming conscious of a universal connectedness and the power of collective vision. Damon shares her confidence in us.