A visit to the Sea of Cortez reveals
nature’s strength -- and vulnerability
September 22
Recently I visited a unique locale down on the Baja Peninsula -- the Sea of Cortez, where the cool water of the Pacific meets the warmer water of the Gulf of California. This confluence of currents causes a kind of twirling of the ocean, resulting in rip currents every 20 yards or so and the creation of huge mounds of sand.
I was advised not to go in the water, but thought that having grown up along the Pacific Ocean, I was well versed in its vicissitudes. Yes, I was aware there were rip currents; I could see them, but made the mistake of thinking I could get wet and still keep my feet on the sand. Well, within a minute of saying that to myself, I was knocked down, not by the wave but by the backwash coming down from the tall mound of sand behind me. It immediately swept me right into one of the rip current vortexes, and I became a little panicky – OK, more than a little. But in the interval between the waves I grabbed some sand with my feet and with all my energy managed to pull myself up and out.
 Needless to say, I should have listened to the experts and showed a little more respect for Mother Nature. But the next day, I was again humbled by one of her feats, this time in the form of a sea turtle that emerged from the very same treacherous water. Fighting the backwash over and over, it slowly pulled its body up a mound of sand until it had climbed over the top. It was a long and absolutely amazing process -- but even more amazing to me was that after this impossible journey, the tenacious turtle buried herself under the sand, at least 18 inches to two feet deep, and proceeded to lay 90 to 100 eggs, each about the same size as a medium chicken egg.
How this turtle made it through that backwash and up the mound and then had the energy to dig down into the sand that deep with that many eggs in her was truly amazing and enlightening -- especially after what I had gone through the previous day. But then came the sad part. How I happened to witness this phenomenon was that the same person who had cautioned me not to swim the day before was back on the beach and made sure everyone stood back and well away from the turtle. Then, after the reptile’s all-day effort, he dug up the eggs and moved them – because, regrettably, the once abundant life forms in the Sea of Cortez are now endangered due to pollution in the form of Styrofoam and plastic that many creatures are apt to mistake for food. (It was even told to me that a dead turtle, when opened up, was found to contain so much Styrofoam that it probably was rendered incapable of going under water to forage.)
Had I not chanced to visit that remote beach on the Sea of Cortez, I might never have come to appreciate how a turtle capable of overcoming rip currents that can easily drown a man is simply no match for the trash that a man might casually discard hundreds of miles away. So the next time someone offers you a cup or anything else made of Styrofoam, turn it down -- and make a request to the universe that the human race start to recognize the negative impact that its individual actions can have, even on Mother Nature’s most resilient of creatures.
Focus group closes ‘green gap’
between recycling and organic
September 4
On August 21, I had the great opportunity to sit in on a focus group whose purpose was to evaluate shoppers’ triggers and motivators as they relates to sustainability. Since this was funded by a client, I’m not at liberty to provide all the details. But I would like to share some general insights that I believe impact the ‘greater common good’.
The moderator started out by asking a group of mostly professional women, ranging in age from about 30 to 45 (among whom were an attorney, personal trainer, web designer, and accounting rep) what behaviors they had changed since learning about how various activities can impact the environment. Recycling was clearly the number-one answer. It was considered by far to be the single most important thing a family or household can do to support sustainability.
The next behavioral change cited by the members of this group was switching to organic food. They really believed that buying organic had an impact on the health of the planet (as well as on that of their families), which provided me with a huge insight into the tie-in between organic and recycling. Perhaps it shouldn't have seemed so surprising, but I must admit that I myself had never been fully aware of how strongly these two seemingly separate aspects of the Green Revolution relate to each other. In fact, I had always tended to view them as independent entities, but with these individuals, at least, the connection was a much closer one than I thought.
I love focus groups precisely because they always enable you to discover connections you hadn’t previously made. Most retailers, for example, tend to think of recycling as a kind of a dirty, soggy, weird business having to do with the salvaging of trash, rather than a critical enterprise. (I know, because I once felt that way myself.) But in today’s world, with oil going for well in excess of $100 dollars a barrel and petroleum reserves being rapidly depleted, materials recovery can help keep life on earth sustainable by substantially reducing the use of fossil fuel – a concept of which these focus group members displayed a firm understanding. It was quite obvious that the act of returning containers to the retailer or making sure they’re deposited in curbside receptacles for recycling is a source of pride to such conscientious consumers, just as is the purchase of organic food.
Third on the list of answers to the moderator’s question was -- you guessed it --- buying local, and supporting businesses in the surrounding area. In fact, they were rather passionate on this particular subject. I asked the moderator to have them more precisely define what that meant, and it was quite interesting to hear the direction the conversation took from there. Interpretations went from just not buying imports to limiting one’s purchases to West Coast products to restricting them to a range of from 500 to 100 miles. There were even two panelists whose only criterion was that they didn’t want to buy merchandise that had been shipped for thousands of miles.
What also really amazed me was how intuitive this group’s comprehension of the issues was and how pragmatic its members where in regard to the realities we face in today’s world.
I left the focus group having had a few too many M & M’s (not exactly an organic product, to be sure, but one for which focus groups are notorious) and feeling like I now had a better handle on the environmental priorities of today’s consumers: recycling, eating organic and buying local, in that order.
The bottom line is that, when it comes to eco-awareness, increasingly, the public seems to “get it,” and be changing its behavior accordingly. The question is, how well is your business keeping up with its customers?
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