water

As a child, David Helvarg used to look up at the stars and become angry that he was born too early to explore new worlds. But soon he realized that the ocean is a unexplored world. As an adult, Helvarg became a journalist and spent his time exploring the ocean, and founded the Blue Frontier Campaign to help conserve the world under the sea. Helvarg has written a memoir, Saved by the Sea, about his career as a reporter, explorer, activist and conservationist, and he joins Laura in the studio for our Friday Feature conversation about his life's work. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Despite what you learned in science class in school, Maude Barlow says, it is in fact possible for the Earth to be running out of water. Pollution and population are on the rise, and corporations encroach on the water rights of people around the world, fencing off and bottling up a natural resource that should be available to all.Barlow is a longtime activist for water rights, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, and a longtime fighter against globalization. She joins Laura in studio to explain how the water crisis happened, why it's getting worse, and why we must act now to ensure access to water before the resource wars get any worse.

In Bolivia, it is estimated that over 1/3 of the population faces a daily struggle to get enough water. The country now recognizes water as a basic human right, and has struggled in the past with multinational corporations attempting to make a profit off the people's needs. Tami Woronoff and Jennifer Utz were in Bolivia recently and filed this report on the ongoing fight for water.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote of the dangers of Bisphenol A, a common chemical in plastics and can liners: While the evidence isn't conclusive, it justifies precautions. In my family, we're cutting down on the use of those plastic containers that contain BPA to store or microwave food, and I'm drinking water out of a metal bottle now. In my reporting around the world, I've come to terms with the threats from warlords, bandits and tarantulas. But endocrine disrupting chemicals - they give me the willies. Kristof isn't the only one who gets the chills at the thought of BPA, a synthetic estrogen linked to reproductive cancers. Nena Baker wrote a book, "The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being," on this very subject, and joined Laura in the studio to discuss what can be done about these frightening chemicals. Noting that neither Republicans nor Democrats want their kids ingesting harmful substances, Baker called for government action. "We can't shop our way out of this problem."