Environmental Engineering Reference
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the 1950s and 1960s over the fi ght with Metro for regional governance.
6
Ultimate control of urban politics would be directed not by the regional
government or by municipally elected offi cials but by an active citizenry.
Related to this turn toward participatory governance, many Seattleites
found inspiration in the related environmental movements of back-to-
the-land, bioregionalism, and appropriate technology. The emphasis on
nature's abundance and the quest for a balance between humans and
the landscape resonated with those residents of the Pacifi c Northwest
who revered nature and wanted to live in harmony with their natural
surroundings.
Ernest Callenbach's 1975 novel
Ecotopia
was particularly infl uential
in bringing these ideas together into a coherent whole. In Callenbach's
fi ctitious account, Northern California, Oregon, and Washington seceded
from the rest of the United States to form a new self-suffi cient nation called
Ecotopia. Ecotopians rejected the U.S. emphasis on economic growth and
progress, reorienting their economy toward biological survival, quality of
life, and a balance between humans and nature. Ecotopians championed a
mandatory 20-hour workweek and emphasized organic agriculture, sus-
tainable forestry, recycling, and renewable energy strategies. Similar to
Appropriate Technology enthusiasts, Ecotopians put technology to the
service of humans, rather than the other way around.
7
As Callenbach
writes, “Ecotopians claim to have sifted through modern technology and
rejected huge tracts of it, because of its ecological harmfulness.”
8
Envi-
ronmentally detrimental products such as the internal combustion engine
and plastics were outlawed, and public funding for scientifi c research was
directed toward benign forms of consumption. Ecotopians also practiced
a form of ecological democracy that involved participatory governance
based on the protection of the environment; all residents were eager to
engage in heated but civil debates about political matters and government
policies on a daily basis.
For a small but active group of Pacifi c Northwest residents, Callen-
bach's novel captured the essence of the region.
9
They already appreciated
the promise and potential of the region as a place where nature and hu-
mans could live in harmony, and Callenbach provided these residents with
a blueprint for transforming their beliefs about environmental protection
and participatory governance into reality. A city hall insider and long-time
resident of Seattle succinctly notes, “Once Ernest Callenbach did Ecotopia,
people realized they could do something different.”
10
Refl ecting on the
synergy between participatory governance and urban environmentalism,
historian Jeffrey Sanders writes:
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