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=                         Ecotopia_Emerging                          =
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                            Introduction
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'Ecotopia Emerging' '(EE)' by Ernest Callenbach is a fictionalized
history of events leading up to the secession of regions of the
Pacific Coast of the United States: Northern California, Oregon, and
Washington join to form the environmentalist nation of Ecotopia which
is said to have steady-state economy. In 1975, Callenbach had
published a utopian novel called 'Ecotopia' about the events; 'EE' is
the prequel, published in 1981. The 'EE' story seems to take place in
the 1990s; Callenbach assumes that the pro-business,
anti-environmental Reagan-era policies--already evident at the time of
publication--will have persisted in the United States after Reagan's
presidency.

'Ecotopia' has been extremely popular and influential. Although 'EE'
addresses the question of 'how to get there from here,' it has
received much less attention. On its release, 'Publishers Weekly'
reviewed it as a “young adult” book.


                            Plot summary
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'EE' is mainly a history of the Ecotopian independence movement. The
main characters are Vera Allwen, the leader of the Survivalist Party,
and Lou Swift, a teenage physicist, along with their families and
friends. Other characters are shown briefly as each one decides
independently to break with the American status quo and begin living
in an Ecotopian (low-tech, sustainable) fashion.

Bolinas, California, high school student Lou Swift finds a way to
generate electricity cheaply from seawater in a solar cell. However,
she does not understand how the cell works. She refuses to publish her
results until she understands the science. Because she is determined
to make the cell design freely available, she spurns corporate and
academic offers to buy the cell design. Meanwhile, spies and burglars
try to obtain her notes.

Vera Allwen is a California state senator. Angered by an Eastern food
corporation's announcement it would stop selling fresh produce, she
and other politicians, artists, and professionals form a new political
party. It is decentralized, environmentalist, and populist. They
create a platform and name it the Survivalist Party. As the book
proceeds, they spread their ideas, coalition with like-minded people,
and become a regional political force. Vera's speeches are reprinted
within the text. Some of their ideas come from a short novel called
'Ecotopia', and the Party publishes a paper called "The Survivalist
Way to Ecotopia." The Party creates a think tank for environmentalist
policies. When the Pacific Northwest states pass a special tax on cars
to reduce car use, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns it; public outrage
along the Pacific coast helps tip the people of the region toward
supporting the Survivalist Party.

When the Quebec government offers to establish diplomatic relations,
the Party starts thinking about independence. A nuclear accident gives
them the governorship of Washington State, and Northern California's
refusal to keep supplying Southern California with water leads to the
state splitting into two. An ardent secessionist claims to have
planted dirty bombs in New York City and Washington, DC, and threatens
they will explode if the U.S. attacks the region. Bolinas declares
itself independent of other governments. The Survivalist Party has
infiltrated local units of the National Guard, which are now
sympathetic to the secessionists. The U.S. is too busy with a war in
Brazil to send troops to pacify Bolinas and its supporters. In a lucky
coincidence, the U.S. helicopters massing on the Nevada border and
preparing to attack the region are suddenly recalled to deal with a
crisis in Saudi Arabia, and secession seems likely to proceed.

Meanwhile, in the future Ecotopia, individuals move the local economy
toward a more sustainable model. A collective sets up a solar
remodeling business; a young man uses goats to mow lawns. Berkeley
creates car-free zones; other cities adopt them. A suburban tract is
replanted as an orchard. Rural residents build a lightweight, cheap
horse-drawn buggy, and stills to distill alcohol from farm waste.
Eventually, a large part of the public is car-free and ready to take
the final steps to a sustainable economy.

Lou finally discovers the key chemical that makes her solar cell work.
She publishes her paper and people start building their own cells.
With this breakthrough, the region will no longer be dependent for
energy on the rest of the U.S. for imported fossil fuels or nuclear
power. With this energy independence, the future nation of Ecotopia
becomes a practical possibility.

These events occur against economic and political breakdown in the
U.S.: corporate concentration, slashed government budgets, and
military adventurism abroad, aided by a compliant corporate media. The
automobile habit has essentially bankrupted the U.S. Refusing to
develop alternative energy sources, “oil-hungry America lurched toward
some unseen economic catastrophe.” At the end, the Saudi oil
refineries have been bombed, and the U.S. military is caught up in a
war in the Middle East.

The Ecotopian storyline ends with the Party making Lou's solar cell
technology available to the public, and a constitutional convention
where the region decides to secede from the U.S. following the
Quebec-Canada model.

The book 'Ecotopia' begins about 20 years after secession, when the
new nation is securely established. Neither book describes events in
between, such as the political difficulties of secession, the economic
dislocations and outmigration from the region, and the Helicopter War
with the U.S. (referred to in 'Ecotopia').


        Comparison of ''Ecotopia Emerging'' and ''Ecotopia''
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As a prequel to 'Ecotopia', 'EE' uses some of the same characters as
'Ecotopia', principally Vera Allwen and Marissa D’Amato (later the
girlfriend of 'Ecotopia'’s narrator). However, there are important
differences between the books.
#       The format is different. 'Ecotopia' is the account of a trip to
Ecotopia by a U.S. reporter, William Weston, and is told entirely from
his point of view. 'EE' alternates a straightforward narrative history
of the United States and the Survivalist Party with novelistic
snapshots of key events in the lives of some future Ecotopians.
#       'Ecotopia' was written in the middle 1970s, when American writers
were trying to imagine how to reconstruct society after the 1960s
revolutions. It focuses on the achieved Ecotopian society, not on the
problems of the (remaining) United States. 'EE' was published in 1981
and has a darker tone. It focuses as much on the dysfunctional U.S.
political and economic system as it does on the actions of the future
Ecotopians. Most of its ‘predictions’ for the U.S. future have turned
out to be prescient, such as “From the eighties onward the business
mentality triumphed.” (p. 42)
#       'Ecotopia' describes a steady-state society. Only the narrator
changes as the book progresses. 'EE' is a history; its characters,
institutions and society change over time.
#       'Ecotopia' has been criticized for only presenting life in Northern
California. 'EE' has a broader scope, and includes all three states.


                         Critical reaction
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'EE' has received little critical attention. One critic points out
that independence is achieved too easily. "In 'Ecotopia Emerging', the
internal contradictions of existing North American capitalism do
feature strongly in creating the impetus for change. However, little
account is offered of how such dynamics would surely also ensure
stubborn resistance to such change (nuclear blackmail notwithstanding)
- in this emerging ecotopia, big business’s capitulation to idealists
seems abject and fairly complete.”


                             References
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Also
*'Ecotopia Emerging.' 'Library Journal', January 1, 1982, p. 107.


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