May 10, 2008

Ecotopia Emerging - book review

Just finished rereading Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia Emerging. For a book written in 1981 - he sure had the current economic situation pegged to a tee. The book takes the states of Washington, Oregon and Northern California and groups them into their own eco-region. It is a fictionalized account of economic vs ecological battles.

One of the key factors is the development of a solar cell on the cheap and easy to reproduce. The book has the invention created by an 18 year-old woman. If such a cell has been designed, it probably rests on a back shelf in some oil company locker. There are some very good reasons to develop such a cell for use today - if all the tinkerers had some energy to spend in that direction. Just found this.

The politics is somewhat radical, but having been through the third party ringer with the Reform Party, Dr. Lenny can relate to the circumstances. The current one party with two faces system is just an old boys network for fostering corporate bank accounts and feeding the war machine. Callenbach gets very close to the current middle east status - a pretty good vision considering that the book was written prior to peristroika.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a different visual outlet on current societal status. The methods described for Survivalists may have some bearing on preparations that can be taken in the event of total economic dissolution. This book is a prequel to the book Ecotopia, but it stands on its own without the need to read the first book.

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