Word: ecotopian
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That began to change in the 1970s with that decade's oil shocks, which produced a short-lived vogue for alternate heating technologies. The simultaneous rise of environmentalism also inspired what you might call hobbit architecture, cottages crowned with listless greenery and the odd solar panel. Paolo Soleri's ecotopian settlement, Arcosanti, began to take shape in the Arizona desert. But it wasn't until the 1990s that green architecture gained a foothold in mainstream building. That was partly the result of a growing realization that "sustainable" buildings have lower long-term heating and cooling costs. States began offering...
...openers, and expropriated all waterfront property. They have also encouraged such an independent spirit in women that they have become sexual predators and even control the ruling party. Into this world of spartan but sensual living comes a reporter, the first American to visit Ecotopia since independence, to explore Ecotopian technology, the almost religious reverence for nature, and social habits, both appealing and appalling...
Admittedly, Ecotopian man still has remnants of competitiveness left -- controlled by war games in which teams go at each other with spears. As other examples of liberated thinking, drug use and prostitution are decriminalized. By contrast, polluters are given long jail terms. "Environmental crimes are just as life destructive as hitting people over the head, and ought to be punished similarly...
This summer's environmental assaults, the author believes, have made an Ecotopian world a little more likely. "We have been messing about with the atmosphere in a truly Faustian way. That and the garbage on the shores have put people in a rotten humor." But what will really "be the key to the evolution of Ecotopia" will be a catastrophe at a nuclear plant. "One of these days a nuke is going to blow in the country, as surely as the sun goes up and comes down. It's practically bound to happen, and it will put a whole...
Callenbach likes to shock students by telling them, "The challenge of modern life is to make it as emotionally healthy as life in a Stone Age village." Keep that in mind next time you fume over foul air and blaring traffic. Think of your Ecotopian future, smoking a joint on some peaceful municipal waterfront, watching the biodegradable plastic boats...