Ecotopia
This classic work gave a name to an entire science fiction subgenre. Ecotopia presents a first-person account of a U.S. American journalist visiting a break-away ecological utopia situated in Northern California. see also Ecological and Social Utopias and Dystopias as well as Literature, Art, and the Environment.
Biography
Callenbach, Ernest. Ecotopia (Amazon Preview) (1975). another preview McH Stacks PS3553.A424E25 1990.
His farewell: Epistle to the Ecotopians.
The Novel That Predicted Portland NYT 2008.
A list of his books, including a prequel 1981.
Earth Ten Commandments, alt site.
NYT 2008 article on the novel's continuing relevance.
A sketchbook to help you use your visual imagination to envision Ecotopia.
Video
Bill McDonough is building twelve Ecotopian cities in China. Full TEDtalk.
Are We the Designers or the Designed? with Jason Silva. Whether we're conscious of it or not, the things we design can design us as well.(from BigThink). Important because some people misinterpret that Ecotopians are these saintly beings who are better than we are, but they ARE us. Silva echoes Douglas Engelbart that we can make better tools to make us smarter to make better tools until we can take on "wicked problems like climate change. See Stafford Beer below, and Green Design.
Award winning 4 min film echoes Ecotopia, addresses the attitude/habit issue 10/14.
Ecotopia or Bust 2007? 34 min interview on application of Ecotopia principles. alt link. "ECOTOPIA author Ernest Callenbach talks about the signs of the influence his 1975 visionary novel has had at home and abroad, his thoughts on social change, and the urgency he sees of making the inevitable transition to clean, renewable energy sources or--the alternative--a plunge into chaos." He notes we are the first empire to rely on a distant energy source. Growth vs sustainability.
From Ecotopia to Solartopia (interview). alt link. 55 min.
Ecotopia Then and Now 1982 interview 27 min.
Prophetic 5 min news segment.
Occupied Cascadia documentary. Full version.
Sapience film features Callenbach.
Cascadia road trip 10/15.
== Ecotopia Rising == (Living the Dream)
Ecotopia inspired the rise of Green parties, especially in Germany, which recently got 75% of its power from renewable resources, and kicks ass n many other respects as well.
Cascadia secession effort. The Republic of Cascadia has a flag and everything. news and culture, also some history (including 1986 bio-regionalism conference), and you can join up. Free Cascadia.
Ecotopia in the News
UC Santa Cruz held a conference in honor of "Ecotopia." It's a 40-year-old book by Ernest Callenbach that's helped shape modern ideas about sustainability. Cy Musiker explores the long tail of this utopian classic. Reporter: Cy Musiker - See more (audio). 10/15. alt link. Keynote by Kim Stanley Robinson. Virtually all of Robinson's novels have an ecological component; sustainability is one of his primary themes. (A strong contender for the primary theme would be the nature of a plausible utopia.) The Orange County trilogy is about the way in which the technological intersects with the natural, highlighting the importance of keeping the two in balance. In the Mars trilogy, one of the principal divisions among the population of Mars is based on dissenting views on terraforming; it is heavily debated whether or not the seemingly barren Martian landscape has a similar ecological or spiritual value to a living ecosphere like Earth's. Forty Signs of Rain has an entirely ecological thrust, taking global warming for its principal subject.
Oslo wants to ban cars from city center and divest billions from fossil fuels (the American Dream is alive and well in Scandanavia, it is often said, as they have good free education, upward mobility etc...).
How Will We Reach an Ecological Civilization and Who Will Build It?By Chris Williams, Truthout 11/15. See Economics and Sustainability.
Fat Tire, one of the biggest craft beers and #8 overall, is owned by its workers. (video) 10/15.
Keystone XL pipeline vote show extreme polarization on green issues. CA,WA,OR and BC in carbon alliance, Update 4/14)WCI, 2105 update.
Ecotopia lives! City of South Miami Officials Call For 'South Florida' Secession because of global warming inaction. 10/14.
Catalonia will vote to split from Spain, Scotland almost did. 11/14.
Cuba and the Embargo: some interesting parallels to Ecotopia 10/14.
Trash powerplant doubles as ski slope.
Arcosanti is an experimental town in central Arizona, 70 mi (110 km) north of Phoenix. Its arcology concepts were developed by the Italian-American architect, Paolo Soleri, (1919–2013). in December 1946 and spent a year and a half in fellowship with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in Arizona, and at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin.Atlas Obscura update (main)
Ecotopian Transitions Towns Masters Thesis prepared for The London School of Economics & Political Science 2008 By Richard Seán O’Rourke.
A sort of Tea Party version is the State of Jefferson, perhaps an outgrowth of Reagan era "Wise Use" Sagebrush Rebellion.
Plan to break CA into six states 3/14 much sillier than Ecotopia book. Tim Draper talk.
Historical Attempts/Precursors
Stafford Beer applied cybernetics to managing organizations e.g., (Allende's Chile alternative to top-down economic planning video critique) a more positive assessment) on the meaning and origins of cybernetics *** CYBERNETICS & "THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE"; Allende was assassinated by the CIA, replaced by Pinochet and the Dirty War. See Systems Thinking.
Sewer Socialism in Milwaukee.
The Elusive State of Jefferson: A Journey Through the 51st State Peter Laufer
