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In the midst of the drastically gravitating pressure of the environmental crisis, science fiction may provide a viable opportunity for the ecocritic to find solutions for today’s environmental issues. Ecotopia (1975) by Ernest Callenbach (1929-2012) is at the forefront of such sci-fi novels which explore the conceptual links between ecocriticism and science fiction. The novel builds upon the imaginary situation in which a part of the United States of America breaks away and forms a stable-state known as Ecotopia. Through the diary entries and journalistic reports of the narrator, a sketch of the environmental utopia is presented in detail. The new country which seceded from the existing American society of high capitalism and materialism has by now achieved an environmentally sustainable condition for living in terms of both social and environmentalist well-being. Among the newly adopted norms of living in Ecotopia are found such practices as collective ownership, thorough recycling, and tree-worship. Ecotopian society may serve as an efficient starter for considering sci-fi alternatives to the ever-worsening eco-social standards of living that today’s reader faces. The novel thus envisions a near-future utopia whose social norms and practices are not far-fetched and, in so doing, exemplifies how today’s environmentalism can benefit from science fiction.
