A novel both timely and prophetic, Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia is a
hopeful antidote to the environmental concerns of today, set in an
ecologically sound future society. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as
the "newest name after Wells, Verne, Huxley, and Orwell," Callenbach
offers a visionary blueprint for the survival of our planet . . . and
our future.
Ecotopia was founded when northern California, Oregon, and Washington
seceded from the Union to create a "stable-state" ecosystem: the perfect
balance between human beings and the environment. Now, twenty years
later, this isolated, mysterious nation is welcoming its first
officially sanctioned American visitor: New York Times-Post reporter
Will Weston.
Skeptical yet curious about this green new world, Weston is determined
to report his findings objectively. But from the start, he's alternately
impressed and unsettled by the laws governing Ecotopia's earth-friendly
agenda: energy-efficient "mini-cities" to eliminate urban sprawl,
zero-tolerance pollution control, tree worship, ritual war games, and a
woman-dominated government that has instituted such peaceful revolutions
as the twenty-hour workweek and employee ownership of farms and
businesses. His old beliefs challenged, his cynicism replaced by hope,
Weston meets a sexually forthright Ecotopian woman and undertakes a
relationship whose intensity will lead him to a critical choice between
two worlds.
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