Ecotopia Imagined

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that the world envisioned in Ernest Callenbach's text 'Ecotopia Emerging' seems both familiar and foreign, dated yet oddly prescient to a 21st century reader. The writer points out that the book was written during a period of rising conservative sentiment in the nation, and was meant to criticize an anti-environmentalist, pro-consumption, and fuel-wasting America around 1981. The writer pictures living in such a society and looks at what might be considered difficult and fulfilling. The writer maintains that in such a society there would be a greater sense of social responsibility to the community and to others because people would not be judged upon how they were able to accumulate the trappings of success. The writer concludes that those who are currently poor would likely flourish in Ecotopia, but life in Ecotopia would definitely come at a personal cost to people who are more affluent, or perhaps more iconoclastic, individual, creative and competitive by nature.

From the Paper:

"Living in an entirely self-sustaining land that is not dependant upon dictatorships for fuel would be fulfilling on an emotional level, but the loss of freedom and mobility with the shift from cars to buggies would initially be difficult, especially since the rest of the world would still be using cars. Of course, there might be a certain amount of fun in learning how to drive a horse and carriage, and the emotional relationship provided by living so close to nature, and being dependant upon a warm and caring living being rather than a box of metal would be a bonus. But there would be added extra time every morning, to feed the horse, to hitch it up to a buggy or to saddle the animal, and to take the time to ride to work or school.
"Train travel would mean that an Ecotopian would not have to live like a 19th century dweller. But even though mobility across wide geographical expanses would still be possible, life would become recognizably different."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Callenbach, Ernest. Ecotopia Emerging, Heyday Books, 1981.

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