Ecotopia Emerging

Ernest Callenbach

“Eco- from the Greek oikos (household or home)

-Topia- from the Greek topos (place)”
 Utopias are said to be unattainable and impossible. This is the most ideal and

beautiful place imaginable. As a society the people decide what is best for the society.

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“…humans evolved such astonishing capacities in hand and brain that they

became a species which altered its own environment.” Humans learned to build

protective barriers and divert water for gardens, villages, and cities. Populations were

soaring and the cities spread over the landscape. Social organization was overwhelming.

Coexisting with the land and nature was beginning to dwindle.

Ernest Callenbach has acknowledged the human need to coexist with the earth.

Humans have found ways to survive, but some ways are slowly destroying the earth, the

plants, the animals, as well as our own species – the humans.

“Like a plague of locusts, humans seemed to have escaped all

natural checks and were devouring everything in their path.
Unlike any other creatures ever seen on the earth, humans
exterminated other species by the tens of thousands – either
directly with guns, or indirectly by destroying habitats in forest
and river and grassland.”

__________
 Today, the earth is being pulled in multiple directions; the direction toward

technological advances, the direction for good foreign ties, the direction to become more

environmentally friendly, and the direction to conserve natural and human-made

resources. Many people and many organizations are trying to balance all of these pulls.

New inventions, techniques, and ideas are leading this pathway to a balanced earth we all

inhabit.

Lou Swift thought future outlooks of the earth’s resources were limited. These

outlooks – whether it is individual people or large corporations; micro or macro scale –

that had a large sum of money as the only incentive to help minimize the destruction of

the earth were immoral and irresponsible. Electricity could be generated from wind,

geothermal, ocean thermal, or mini-hydro sources, rather than using nuclear or power

plants. Pollution was not necessary when producing energy or electricity. “She had a

vision of people being able to capture the energy of the sun directly, wherever they lived,

without hooking up to a utility’s ugly overhead wires. If she could produce a really good

solar cell, then household electricity in modest amounts could be generated without

pollution, without huge centralized power plants, and especially without nuclear ones –

existing generating plants would have plenty of capacity for industrial uses for many

decades.”

Lou worked extremely hard on trying to invent a great solar cell that could benefit

all people – not just the wealthy. She studied photovoltaics in a makeshift laboratory at

her father’s house in Bolinas. She set up small experimental solar units where she could

gather her readings and results with great clarity. One stormy and windy night, Lou’s

cells were being jostled around. The next morning, one of the cells read really high
results. This was strange because the sky was overcast, not sunny. No other lab had

received results this high. She found that this particular cell got wet with sea water and

rain. This is what began her passion for the future of the world. This began her dream of

utilizing photovoltaics.

Working in parallel of Lou Swift was Vera Allwen. Vera was in politics for a

majority of her life and she was trying to lead the society politically toward an

environmentally friendly world. She was one of the founders of the Survivalist Party – a

political organization that wanted to allow the environment to produce the required

energy and food for people to survive, not to be produced by money-hungry corporations

or the government. After she read an article, she said, “You know, this thing makes me

realize that we can’t just take this kind of non-survival behavior anymore. We have to

find some way of fighting it politically. But I don’t know how we should go about it.”

This article was about the rising cost of fresh produce and how produce was going to

soon be discontinued. People no longer wanted to pay the rising costs to have their food

fresh. This put Vera’s ideas into action. This was the beginning of the Survivalist Party.

She and a small group of friends – also with the same views and concerns about

the environment – formed the Survivalist Party. Vera did a fair share of public speaking.

In one of her speeches she said, “…We must seek a new goal: to live modestly and

cooperatively and in freedom within the resources of our beautiful planet and within the

energy budget set for us by that lovely star, our sun.” Vera used this phrase as a way to

address the problems with today’s society and a way we should live. This was her way of

trying to gain more members and supporters of the Survivalist Party.

 At a political conference in New Orleans, Vera was very thirsty, but decided not

to drink the water. She knew the water was contaminated. She didn’t understand why no

one insisted on activated carbon filtration; maybe people thought cleaning the water

wasn’t worth the trouble. “Drink now, die later,” she thought. She settled for purchasing

bottled water. This was the only way she could have clean, healthy water to drink. I am

glad she was able to drink clean water, but I am not a supporter of bottled water. The vast

majority of people do not recycle. This is extremely wasteful of the plastics that can

easily be recycled and put back on the shelf. America seems to understand the necessity

of recycling. It is becoming much easier and more convenient for people to recycle –

curbside recycling. The concept of recycling is just the beginning of many small concepts

to better the entire whole.

The survivalists, after many meetings discussing what they could do to help the

society and earth, created a list. They called it the “No More!” list. This is the list they

created to follow, much like the Ten Commandments or the Bill of Rights.

1. No extinction of other species.

2. No nuclear weapons or nuclear plants.
3. No manufacturing of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) or mutagenic (mutation-
causing) substances.
4. No adulterants in foods.
5. No discrimination by reason of sex, race, age, religion, or ethnic origin.
6. No private cars.
7. No advertiser-controlled or broadcast television.
8. No limited-liability corporations.
9. No absentee ownership or control – one employee, one vote.
10. No growth in population.
This was the beginning of a long journey for the Survivalist Party. This was the

beginning of their struggles to be heard and recognized by the public and the government.

These were their guidelines for a better quality of life while living on this earth.

Rather than holding meetings in party members’ homes, the Survivalists moved

their headquarters into an old abandoned warehouse. They wanted it to be as self-

sustainable as they could make it. They used solar heat as a greenhouse to grow fresh

produce. They recycled methane gas from sewage as cooking gas. Solar panels were

added on the roof to heat the building. This was a great way to show they are serious

about environmental issues along this political path; setting an example.

The Survivalists wanted all people to know and recognize that every plant and

animal has a purpose. Berries serve as food or medicinal purposes, soap plants for

washing, grass and aspen roots for weaving baskets, nets, and ropes. “Into this temperate

and abundant land the first known human inhabitants – moving down the continent from

the Bering landbridge – came with bows and arrows which enabled them to hunt even

the great mammals. Their descendants settled into a quiet existence, coming to

understand and respect the creatures and the places of the region; they knew how all

sustained all.” The Survivalists wanted today’s society to acknowledge and understand

that this is how we humans should inhabit the world.

Technology has been society’s outlook toward the future. It has played a huge

role in the way we live, communicate, survive, and even relate and respond to one

another and to the earth. “Thus paradoxically, the technical ingenuity which had enabled

humans to proliferate into every habitable niche on the earth’s surface had also begun to

threaten the survival upon the planet of all plant and animal life – including the human
species itself.” The building of nuclear power plants had immediate affects on the planet.

It disrupted nature. It created chemicals that were harmful. It created negative effects for

the earth and the creatures that inhabit it.

In 1940-1945, chemicals began being produced. The United States transformed

into the “greatest industrial machine” earth had ever seen. Due to these new, untested

materials and chemicals, people started becoming ill; cancer. All ages were suffering.

Nearly one in every four Americans were becoming victims of cancer. In the early

1980’s, about 80,000 new chemicals were being introduced to the environment and about

35,000 of those were known or potential hazards to health. Carcinogens were being

released into the environment, household products, and even some foods. This didn’t

seem to worry anyone. People were more concerned about making money that they still

ate, drank, built with, and sprayed hazardous chemicals – even knowing the affects. They

didn’t seem to be bothered as long as they were getting a big paycheck.

Herbicides and other chemicals are sprayed over the landscape to get a higher

yield for crops, which correlates to a higher amount of money received. The spray is then

absorbed into the air, soil, seeds, stems, and leaves. We indirectly eat and breathe these

chemicals. This is extremely unhealthy. It is unhealthy for humans as well as the

environment. Vera wants the people who live on this earth to get a clear understanding –

an understanding of what is going into their bodies, the affects, and an understanding of

how resources should be cared for. “…A vision of a society that would take long-term

care of its natural resources the way a responsible farmer takes care of productive

fields…a society that would feel safe and free, a society that an uprooted, exploited

people could learn to call home.” Organic fertilizers could be used instead of harmful
herbicides or chemicals. With the amount of technology available to this society, there

has to be an organic, non-harmful way to yield high amounts of crops.

These chemicals and herbicides are well-known carcinogens; they cause cancer.

The government does not seem to care that it caused a deadly virus even when there is no

cure to help aid the pain and suffering. Some members of the Survivalist Party were not

very lucky. They had received a gift, an unwanted gift. They received the gift of cancer

after being sprayed by a crop dusting helicopter. They gathered and formed a small group

called the Cancer Commandos. This organization consists of people who can afford being

sentenced and put into prisons because they were diagnosed with cancer that is unable to

be treated – they are going to die in a short amount of time.

The Cancer Commandos decided it was time to act. One lady, Laura, knew that

she was dying and this made her feel more alive than ever. She needed to make a

statement, a point. She needed the world to know – know why she was destroying the

chemical plant as well as why she was dying. She went into a chemical plant, Omni Oil,

and planted a bomb. She wanted to destroy the plant, but not harm anyone in this process.

She warned everybody by yelling that she planted a bomb and everybody in the entire

plant got outside safely. She was arrested and sent to jail. During her trial, she made her

point to the jury and the judge why she did what she did; what her intentions were.

Everyone showed signs of empathy and many were crying, but she was guilty and sent

back to jail where she soon passed on.

The Survivalists want people to remember or imagine what the world was like

before harmful chemicals, automobiles, urban sprawls, or nuclear power plants. Animal

and plant species are becoming extinct, because of human choices and decisions. This
throws off the balance of the environment; the food chain. Over time this could possibly

lead to the domino effect of plant and animal species extinctions. “The point of it all is to

get people to recognize and remember what a natural ecosystem looks like…If we can get

it through their heads the beauty and the complexity and the stability of nature, they’ll

know why we humans have to somehow fit into those marvelous natural webs without

tearing them up…” There is a delicate balance of the earth. This beauty of natural

ecosystems can never be restored to the original state, but we Americans, we humans can

try to make it as close as we possibly can.

Vera stated, “All renewable energy on the earth comes from the sun, directly as

radiation and heat, or indirectly through photosynthesis that gives us wood to burn, food

to fuel our bodies, or winds to run our windmills…” Lou Swift could not agree more.

Lou was in high school while working on developing her solar cells. She would

work for hours upon hours. She needed to understand what was giving her those high

readings so she could further develop the cells. She was hoping it was some substance

that would be readily available and extremely cheap. Lou wanted her cells to be easily

built, fairly cheap in price, and produce as much energy as possible. Lou wanted what

was best for the earth – not money. I like the fact that she is selfless.

The American economy was and is very dependent on oil. When oil prices were

driven up, it hit America’s financial accounts hard – as did military missiles, other

weapons, and the production for automobiles. “At a time when even utility executives

recognized that nuclear energy was becoming economically unviable, the federal

government slashed its budget for solar energy and conservation measures and put the

money into nuclear development.” Because prices were skyrocketing, the budgets for
more environmentally friendly research and technologies – solar energy being one of

those – were cut down dramatically. The money was put into something more important,

more important for the benefits of America’s wallet, not the environment’s soil, water,

and air. The Survivalist Party understands America’s dependency on oil. This is obvious

when looking at the dependency of American’s on their automobiles. By cutting down or

eliminating completely of the automobile, the rising costs of oil would no longer be a

burden.

The Survivalist Party wants the government to acknowledge the consequences of

their decisions. “…Americans have been consuming far more than our reasonable share

of the resources in materials and energy which exist on the earth – 40 percent of them,

though we have only six percent of the people.” These decisions have proved detrimental

results. Non-renewable resources (fossil fuels), such as coal or petroleum, are running

out. The unlimited natural resources are not being utilized to their full potential. This is a

huge problem.

Lou Swift kept getting closer and closer to finalizing her solar cells. Her father

was becoming worried for her safety – she was in the process of making big enemies. If

any big power plants heard how her cells could lead to society not needing their

resources, their facilities would no longer be necessary which leads to loss of jobs and

income. Lou went to a lawyer’s office to see what she could do. She didn’t want to make

enemies. She wanted to make energy affordable and available to everyone. The lawyer

wanted her to publish and patent her findings – she would receive more money than she

could ever imagine. Lou didn’t want money. Money was not her target – free solar

energy was her target. She asked the lawyer if she had any other options. He told her of
public disclosure. He was hesitant because this way of presenting her hard work would

not allow her to become filthy rich. This was perfect for Lou – that is just what she

wanted! This is the path she decided to choose.

Lou found a few very trustworthy friends and told them of her cells. They agreed

to help her. They helped her in many ways. They built and used the cells – allowing her

to not need a patent, yet not allowing someone to steal her idea. As word about her cells

slowly spread, these friends also helped Lou protect not only herself, but her laboratory

too. Lou heard of the Survivalist Party and Vera Allwen. Once Lou’s cells were ready to

be announced to the world, she contacted Vera. Vera had a television show that discussed

many environmental issues and offered ways to aid in resolving them. Lou told Vera

about her cells and was asked to be a guest on her show. Lou told the people all about her

cells – how to make, construct, use, and clean them.

Lou’s cells worked beautifully. They supplied enough power required for the

basic needs of homes. The power companies were not happy about the cells. This region

cut themselves off of the power grid. To the companies, this was not right. They tried to

push their ways back into the lives of these people. The push they received made the

people want to break away from the American power grid and form their own country.

Eventually, this region wanted to break away from America. Away from their

ways of life, ways of destroying the earth. They formed a new society and named it

Ecotopia. This is their environmentally conscious utopia.

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“Eco- from the Greek oikos (household or home)

-Topia- from the Greek topos (place)”