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. See also dynamic graphical map; news about WA, OR, and CA.
Biography
Callenbach, Ernest. Ecotopia (Amazon Preview) (1975). another preview McH Stacks PS3553.A424E25 1990.
His farewell: Epistle to the Ecotopians provides hope and guidance in dark times. ****
The Novel That Predicted Portland NYT 2008. Grist 30th anniversary retrospective take.
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.
Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction 2014 by Gerry Canavan (Editor), Kim Stanley Robinson (Editor) see also Otto.
Other Resources
Wikipedia has a plot summary and some links.
Video
Bill McDonough is building twelve Ecotopian cities in China. Full TEDtalk.
Utopian Dreaming UCSC College 8 conference conference videos. 2015. Youtube links (CBS news calls his book "alarmingly prophetic"). Keynote address by noted science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, who has a recent climate novel, New York 2140.
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, "The Tail" addresses the attitude/habit issue 10/14. Based on EBRD Transition Report.
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.
Guaranteed basic income is an idea catching on to offset massive and increasing inequality.
Economics (More, see also Great Recession):
Naomi Klein’s new book, This Changes Everything, is now a great documentary THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING Inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller. Filmed over 211 days in nine countries and five continents over four years, is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change. *** It proves the value of Ecotopian principles. See Eco-heroes.
Capitalism:Ilan Ziv's documentary trailer. *** Facebook blog. Audio excerpts: overall summary around min 30; Karl Polanyi.
Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society by Michael Albert PM Press, 2017. (audio interview).
BookTV *** BookTV example "Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA" (video panel discussion includes Richard Wolf (worker cooperatives, see audio)(influence of Marx(video).
Fat Tire, one of the biggest craft beers and #8 overall, is owned by its workers. (video) 10/15.
Joseph Stiglitz talked about his book,The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them, about the rising inequality in the United States and what can be done about it.(Book). 6/15.
Women tried to stop the Great Recession but the boss men would not listen. See Women.
American Dream is alive and well in Scandanavia: They created a common vision, booted the 1% and organized with worker co-ops, food co-ops etc. See Where to Invade Next by Michael Moore and Viking Ecocomics (audio); another 12/16 audio interview); Oslo wants to ban cars from city center and divest billions from fossil fuels.
Audio
Ecotopia poses a chicken-or-egg problem: did nice people self-select then build a nice world, or does world make nice people? My hero Doug Engelbart might say both, it's an iterative "boot-strapping" process. But it's too simple to reduce to psychology or even theology. Human nature is "plastic," and the tribe determines where the balance is between altruism and competition. Ecotopians create system (that is rules, limits) to have what Macy and Brown call "power-with" nature and one another. They play what Paul Hawken calls the "infinite game," in which the point is to keep kids, critters, civilization etc going, vs finite/ zero sum games, where to point is win, often by having "power-over."
Why Ecotopia has no crime or drug problems. Worker co-ops empower people, giving them human connection and a sense of empowerment (vs "going postal", we routinely have mass shootings). Economy, Psychology and Mental Health with Guest Harriet Fraad. Hosted by Marxist Economics Professor Richard D. Wolff. Prof. Richard Wolff is interested in worker-owned enterprises, such as Mondragon, (video).11/16.
Real American utopias. Hundreds have been built, including Soul City, racially inclusive city in 1970s North Carolina that became a lightning rod for disagreements over the future of Black Power (new documentary). Good overview article. Twin Oaks still exists. Often called intentional communities, (eco-village examples, NorCal) or their more humble cousins co-housing.
Altruism vs reductionist Darwinism. RadioLab audio
Age of Empathy Is it human nature to be greedy and selfish? Primatologist Frans de Waal doesn't think so. In his new book "The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons For a Kinder Society" de Waal says empathy and solidarity are our primate heritage. Audio interview.
== 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, has a plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 and kicks ass in 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. Free eco-region map downloads.
The McCall Initiative is a story told in serial form. If you’re a fan of edge-of-your-seat dystopian thrillers with a twist of romance, you’ll love Lisa Nowak’s glimpse at a future that’s all too plausible. Great for fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Legend. see Utopias.
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.Utopian Dreaming conference videos.
Chinese City to Become World's First to Switch Entire Bus Fleet to Electric 12/17 see China and Electric Vehicles.
Eat This Food Packaging Instead of Throwing It Away 12/17. see Plastic and Green Design.
Puerto Rico transformation boosted by Bernie Sanders; as in Ecotopia, change comes from crisis 11/17.
Robert B. Reich: Technological Change and the Inevitability of Unconditional Basic Income 2016 see Economics. Update: Repeal Obamacare fight prompted CA to look at singlepayer and UBI: (audio interview) with Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society by Michael Albert PM Press, 2017.
Electric Car Sales Surge 63% Globally big in China 11/17 see Electric cars.
The Worship of Work: How Our Obsession With Productivity Makes Us Less Human BigThink 9/17.
In Huge Win for Oceans and Wildlife, California Phases Out Plastic Bags 11/16. see Plastic.
Austrian Green Party defeats neo-nazis. 12/16
Portland Adopts Surcharge on C.E.O. Pay in Move vs. Income Inequality
Iceland's Upstart Pirate Party makes waves in election ally of Green, while the election didn't bring a Pirate revolution, it did see the emergence of new parties, a decline in support for traditional ones, and a record number of seats for women — 30 out of 63. Crowdsouncing its constitution. 10/16 booming economy 12/16.
Native people resist Dakota Access pipeline 9/16. 12/16 UPDATE: WIN! Reporters arrested; military tactics deployed images,women leaders 10/16. Remarkable Video Shows How to Turn Art Into Activism see Backbone Campaign (Ecotopians join it to support Native Ppl resistance to Dakota Access pipeline) 11/16. Also supporting electric rail.
Women tried to stop the Great Recession but the boss men would not listen. See Women.
9 Reasons Why California's Electric Buses and Trucks Can Help the Environment and Poor Communities.
The upper house of Germany’s parliament, passed a resolution on Monday that calls for the elimination of vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel engines by 2030. 10/16 Germany has led because of the Green Party inspired by Ecotopia. 7 countries follow see also here, California maybe China 2017. see Transporation.
American Dream is alive and well in Scandanavia: They created a common vision, booted the 1% and organized with worker co-ops, food co-ops etc. See Where to Invade Next by Michael Moore and Viking Ecocomics (audio); another 12/16 audio interview); 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...).
HomeBiogas, an Israel-based startup, has created an affordable and compact anaerobic digester that converts organic waste into cooking gas and liquid fertilizer. Home wastes like food scraps, kitchen trash and pet manure no longer have to go to waste.
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.
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.
Secession
Calexit (LA Times) a takeoff on Brexit aka RegretsIt, has ties to Trump (dynamic map). Scotland is rethinking staying in UK. 11/16.
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.
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.
Historical Attempts/Precursors
Kickass author Jack London anticipates Ecotopia and Trump. Dynamic map.
Soul City is real (see audio above). Resegregation in SF Bay Area.
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
