Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach

This imagined eco-country was very much ahead of its time. I thought it would be interesting to look back, almost 50 years later, and see what the book got right, where it was off the mark, and what influence it may have had. (I’m not going to discuss the plot.)

The environmental movement was just edging into wider public consciousness, starting with the first Earth Day in April, 1970. The homesteading/back-to-the-land movement was firmly established and was already supporting magazines like The Mother Earth News—but it was the fringe province of young hippies. The US was still enmeshed in Vietnam. The book would have been mostly or fully written before the Arab oil embargo that skyrocketed oil prices and began to make conservation mainstream. And the successful German resistance to nuclear power plant construction at Wyhl, which birthed the safe energy movement worldwide, wouldn’t begin in earnest until February, 1975 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-nuclear_movement_in_Germany#Early_years ).

• The largely post-industrial Ecotopian society has made huge progress in cleaning its air and water, reimagining energy systems, and making itself a much more livable place. Callenbach barely mentions conservation, however—and that’s where much of the progress in the real world took place. The actual US (along with many other parts of the world) has also made huge strides on pollution and green energy, but it still has far to go. We no longer have urban rivers catching fire (see https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/the-cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-it-inspired-a-movement/ ), but we still have major industrial disasters, many of them related to fossil and nuclear power (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill , as one of many examples).
• Along with the de-industrialization came a reduction of the work week to 20 hours, thus doubling the number of available jobs while freeing time for leisure pursuits such as arts, sports, and science (which in turn can stimulate any economy). Callenbach is far ahead of us here. We would do well to implement something similar so we can achieve full employment and stimulate an economy that’s in tough shape. This would need a pretty big infusion of government money; the private sector can’t just double its labor cost.
• At a time when the US love affair with good natural food hadn’t really started yet, Ecotopia eats well. Farm-to-table is the norm, and people appreciate fresh food. The ecotopian ideal has certainly filtered into the general population. Farmers markets, CSA farms, massive natural foods supermarkets (and decent natural foods sections of mainstream supermarkets) are normal now. But while the natural foods movement has grown enormously, most food consumed in the US is still grown using chemiculture, at industrial scale, far away from where it will be eaten, with sacrifices in soil quality, taste, water pollution, putting other animals and plants at risk, and nutrition. Yet the Ecotopian food sensibility is very meat-oriented, with wild game supplanting feedlots. Callenbach doesn’t build a very accommodating society for vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free, or other special diets.
• Private cars and petroleum-based plastics have been essentially eliminated, though plant-based plastics are common. People have no problem getting around via trains and minivans (and for short distances, walking and biking), even in isolated rural areas—or using tools like videoconferencing to avoid the need to travel. This is another area where the US could emulate Ecotopia, or at least Europe.
• Feminism is a given. The book has several strong female characters and a carefree attitude about sexuality; nonmonogamy is widely practiced and accepted. Ecotopia’s president is female, when only Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, and Israel had ever elected a female leader in the modern era. The US is a lot less sexist than it was in the early 1970s and just elected a female Vice-President of color. Ecotopia would be a good model for us—but in today’s US, same-sex relationships are widely seen as normal, and gender identity is open to question. The near-total invisibility of gays and lesbians in Ecotopia is surprising.
• Cultural diversity, however, is not dealt with well. Ethnic communities have separated from the mainstream and form little “mini-city” Bantustans in the suburban rings around major cities. The population centers are uncomfortably homogeneous. Having lived both in some of the most and least diverse communities in the US, I think diversity is a strength.

I could keep making comparisons for a long time, but let me stop there. It’s an interesting read, a lens on what some of us thought that better world could look like.