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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 new complexion on environmental politics."
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 go by.