Editing Ecotopia (section)

==Context==
Callenbach wove his story using the fiber of technologies, [[lifestyle (sociology)|lifestyle]]s, [[Folkways (sociology)|folkways]], and attitudes that were common in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.  The "leading edges" (his main ideas for Ecotopian values and practices) were patterns in actual social experimentation taking place in the [[Western United States|American West]].<ref>Kirk, Andrew G. (2007). ''Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism''. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p.86. {{ISBN|978-0-7006-1545-2}}.</ref> To draw an example, Callenbach's fictional Crick School was based on Pinel School, an [[Alternative education|alternative school]] located outside [[Martinez, California]], and attended for a time by his son.

Callenbach placed the genesis of Ecotopia with an article he researched and wrote titled "The Scandal of Our Sewage".<ref>Wasserman, Harvey (25 May 2011) [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/a-green-powered-trip-to-e_b_211456.html "A Green-Powered Trip to Eco-Solartopia"] ''[[Huffington Post]]''</ref> Besides the important social dimensions of the story, he talked publicly about being influenced, during work on the novel, by many streams of thought:  scientific discoveries in ecology and conservation biology; the urban-ecology movement, concerned with a new approach to urban planning; and the [[soft energy path|soft-energy movement]], championed by [[Amory Lovins]] and others.  Much of the environmentally benign energy, home building and transportation technology described by the author was based on his reading of research findings published in such journals as ''[[Scientific American]]'' and ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]''.<ref name="Callenbach, Ernest">Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/W7nSASQy0ys Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120513135537/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7nSASQy0ys&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |author=Callenbach, Ernest |title="Life in a Desirable Future," a talk at the Rubenstein School for Environment & Natural Resources at the University of Vermont |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7nSASQy0ys&NR=1&feature=endscreen |access-date=2013-04-05 |via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Callenbach's concept does not reject [[high tech]]nology (or ''any'' technology) as long as it does not interfere with the Ecotopian social order and serves the overall objectives.  Members of his fictional society prefer to demonstrate a ''conscious selectivity'' toward technology, so that not only human health and sanity might be preserved, but also social and ecological wellbeing. For example, Callenbach's story anticipated the development and liberal usage of [[videoconferencing]].{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}

During the 1970s when ''Ecotopia'' was written and published, many prominent counterculture and [[New Left]] thinkers decried the consumption and overabundance that they perceived as characteristic of post-World War II America.<ref>Kirk, Andrew G. (2007)</ref><ref>Murray, Heather. ''Free for All Lesbians: Lesbian Cultural Production and Consumption in the United States during the 1970s''. Journal of the History of Sexuality 16, no. 2 (2007): 251-68.</ref> The citizens of Ecotopia share a common aim: a balance between themselves and nature. They were "literally sick of bad air, chemicalized food, and lunatic advertising. They turned to politics because it was finally the only route to self-preservation."<ref name="ecotopia">Callenbach, Ernest (1990) ''Ecotopia''. New York: Bantam Books.</ref> In the mid-20th century as "firms grew in size and complexity citizens needed to know the market would still serve the interests of those for whom it claimed to exist".<ref name="Hilton, Matthew 2007">• Hilton, Matthew. "Consumers and the State Since the Second World War."  [[American Academy of Political and Social Science#The Annals|The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science]] 611, no. 66 (2007): 66-81.</ref> Callenbach's ''Ecotopia'' targets the fact that many people did not feel that the market or the government were serving them in the way they wanted them to.  This book could be interpreted as "a protest against consumerism and materialism, among other aspects of American life."<ref name="Hilton, Matthew 2007" />

The term "[[Utopian and dystopian fiction#Ecotopian fiction|ecotopian fiction]]", as a subgenre of science fiction and [[utopian fiction]], makes implicit reference to this book.