The panel featured the following speakers:

Vandana Shiva (India -- physicist, ecologist, editor) Over the last 25 years, the gains in India that were made regarding laws to protect the environment have been undone. For example, it was supposed to be the duty of the state to stop practices that threaten ecosystems. Now the WTO will not allow that. However the anti-logging movement is growing. You can kill the trees with axes but you cannot kill us. The WTO is telling us that without exports, the Third World cannot get out of poverty. But our resources are the capital of the poor -- our water, seeds, etc. WTO wants to pirate these; wants to put patents on our eco-diversity. The Indian law on patents is very strong but the WTO opposes this. There is a 6000% increase in the use of pesticides, and farmers are using it to commit suicide. Water is being privatized. Lands are being seized to build dams; now there are shootings everywhere that people are fighting for their rights that are guaranteed by law. More on this topic by Vandana Shiva

Maude Barlow (Canada -- author of new book "Blue Gold" ) The equivalent of climate change is happening to water. We are faced with the destruction of the world's water systems. We have only a three to five year lifeline. They are commodifying the world's water, but we must challenge the ideology that water is available for sale. The sale of 8.9 billion liters of bottled water is a form of collective insanity. We must address global equity -- who has access to clean water. On March 22, the Council of Canadians will launch a campaign in support of a Global Water Convention.

Paul Hawken (U.S. businessman, environmentalist) Since I don't have TV at home, when I'm in a hotel I can't help turning the TV on, so I saw on CNN the coverage of the World Economic Forum in NY and the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. I noticed that at the WEF, all were white men wearing dark suits. At the WSF, there was incredible diversity. This confirms Toynbee's statement that civilizations in decline show conformity; civilizations on the rise show diversity. Our language has been hijacked. Coca-Cola is becoming a "green" company, with green buildings, promoting recycling, etc. But they currently control 10% of the global TLI (total liquid intake). So they will aim to control 20%, then 30%… There should be more taxation of corporations and less funding by corporations of education, the arts, etc. The best way to restore an ecosystem is to remove everything that doesn't belong there. What must we remove that will allow people to take back their rights? We in the North must listen to those who have paid the highest price of industrialization -- people of color, women, children.

Oronto Douglas (Nigeria -- lawyer, author of the new book "Where Vultures Feast") When I was born that was one more mouth to feed, so my father had to spend more time fishing. Today, at 77, he can't find any fish at all in the rivers. When I told my father I was coming to this conference, he told me that my message should be: The fishes have to return! I have noticed that in the U.S. and Europe, there is a great attatchment to personal space and a high rate of individuality. In my village in Nigeria, the river, the forest etc. belong to all. A long conversation on environmental justice with Oronto Douglas

Randy Hayes (U.S. -- Rainforest Action Network) It is time to make a great ecological U-turn. The biosphere is becoming spastic with extreme weather events. The extinction of large ecosystems and indigenous cultures is at hand. Resistance is essential-- nonviolent, but in the streets. He distributed the summary of a report "Alternatives to Economic Globalization" by the International Forum on Globalization (available on the IFG web site)