Spring 2008

URGENTLY NEEDED Planet Marketing Managers

Marketing cannot undo the damage private capital has wrought on Earth’s ecosystems, but if marketers focused their talents on educating the public and highlighting real interventions that reverse environmental decline, they may help turn the tide, writes Graeme Addison.

11 February 2009

AN ADVANCING KALAHARI sandstorm is a frightening sight: a wall of swirling grey fills the sky and blots out the horizon. You stop your car to wonder and admire, but soon the blast is upon you. The fine powder seeps even into a closed vehicle. If you try to escape the heat and dust inside you end up, as I did with two friends, getting buried in drift sand beside the vehicle while the storm rages on.

What I did not know then but know now, is that the Kalahari wind is one of the ecological systems that keeps our planet alive. Terrible as it is to spend 12 hours with a soaked handkerchief over your mouth, your eyes sealed painfully shut, the Aeolian sand is our friend, not our enemy.

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