Ecotopianism Defined
Let me be clear, from the outset, I am just a poor player sharing my stories for your, I trust, delight. The OCA webpage is a marvelous source for information and needful action on the climate front; I urge you use it as a tool of knowledge. My own small efforts to contribute to the conversation tend more toward the imaginative, maybe philosophical or social aspects of our planetary predicament. As my art is the theater, it is inevitable that I should find myself turning to storytelling to communicate. It is my view that we face a future in which the underlying unnatural social matrix of the industrial, consumerist world embracing system is of the essence in our environmental predicament. It is also doomed to collapse in the wake of its own consequences. The challenge our community leaders, at all levels, will face now is to prepare our infrastructure to be resilient and adaptive to new conditions. Our challenge, as a society, is to rediscover a way of life that embraces our natural heritage, clings closer to mother earth and, frankly, remembers what the dear sweet hippie children tried to tell us, oh so long ago….
The term “Ecotopian” was bandied about in the late ’70s, early ’80s of the last century in connection with our very own PNW region. We have a video segment titled, Ecotopia Today, posted on our YT channel that was recorded many moons ago when I first came to Ecotopia. It may be helpful in clarifying what the term might mean:
I’d like to examine our subject in these articles of mine, from the perspective of our descendants, as they might view us, their ancestors, a 3rd or 4th generation hence.
Our researches into this future history have led to the discovery of a number of personal journals, diaries and stories culled from the writings of those Ecotopians. As is sometimes the case in a time travel scenario, future dates must be considered approximate, at best. Our collection of socio cultural and historical data from the future is, of course, far from complete or accurate, at this time. Research continues.
Selections from “Personal Remembrances; The Roots of Ecotopian Civilization”; (Circa 2125)
Edited and with extensive notations by John Talltree II.
A young Ecotopian student wrote this in her journal:
This is the story of how Ecotopia began, as my grandmother taught me.
“We came to realize how vitally important it was to bring our greatest treasures home. So, first, we gathered our families together, kept the bonds of blood alive and remembered that is what matters most. That is how we had the strength of numbers and of love to uphold us through these times of deluge and tribulation.”
And that is how it came to be that we are here today; still surviving, still thriving and living, at last, in harmony with our mother earth.
Alana James, age 12, ca. 2070, in a memory book, preserved within a family journal. – Late deluge.
An Ecotopian entrepreneur observes:
They say we Ecotopians have been smart in business. We have succeeded in our goals, and I can tell you why. Our founders, who first talked of an Ecotopian social network, described themselves as “the entrepreneurs of a better future.” They saw that, working in concert, they could leverage their resources not only to bring the green, clean and renewable economy to fruition in our region, where the demand for change was incredibly high, but were able to establish a basis for intergenerational wealth and influence the entire marketplace in the Pacific Northwest.
The first formal “Ecotopian Investment Fund” was founded in the late ’20s, as I remember, by a handful of local climate activists, environmentalists and foresighted investors. They started small, mostly with eco-tourism projects. Based on the assumption that quality of life profitability was more essential than mere monetary profit the fund became the foundation for, what we hope will be, a sustainable future for our descendants in our region, and on this Olympic Peninsula, er, Island. Our investors bet on the vision of a radically ecologically balanced future for their descendants. The center isn’t holding We need to bring more of the production of basic goods and the best in new technologies into the ecotopian economy. With “atmospheric river” becoming more a description than a metaphor here, and supply chains breaking up out there in the big world, we have a lot to do. But, thanks to wise community leaders, who looked to their future, we will have the means to meet those needs. I hope…
CA: 2045- Transcribed from interview with “business daily.com” Early Deluge period.
And, before we sign off…
Of course, Ecotopia Rising is just a story, the backstory I am inventing is a fantasy meant to set the stage for Ecotopia Rising. Still, maybe it’s something to think about.
If you’d like to get a sense of how the entrepreneurial spirit of the Ecotopian Founders played out at the turn of the next century, here is a short clip where we introduce a pair of entrepreneurs of the Salish Sea, The Johnson brothers.
Well, that’s it.
My next posting might begin:
“A ghost haunts Wall Street, the halls of power and the board rooms of the fossil fuel mega-lopoly, it is the ghost of John D. Rockefeller.”
Thanks for reading this far. I do not have a comment section here, just yet, but you can reach me at:
ocreport1@gmail.com.
Olympic Climate Action 