“Did You See Last Night’s Episode of Ecotopia?”: How a TV Series Could Help Move Climate Action Forward. A Conversation with Elizabeth Watson

Abstract

Elizabeth Watson: My original impetus came in response to a question that was posed during a class I took on “Climate Crisis and Societal Change”— the question of “Why are there so few utopian representations of the future?” As a fan of dystopian books, films and TV shows, it struck me that I had never been exposed to, nor engaged by, a utopian story. In the same class, I was introduced to Callenbach’s Ecotopia, and I immediately wondered if it had already been made into a film or TV series. I found the society described in Ecotopia to be inspiring and well thought out, but it also seemed to be one that could act as a flexible setting in which to explore the implications of systemic change. How would changing the societal and economic system of a place look not only on the institutional level, but straight down to the interpersonal, familial and personal spheres? Could systemic change go as far as modifying our own relationship to our inner world and emotions? Could healing our relationship to nature completely change our relationship to ourselves and others? It seemed to me that Callenbach was exploring this question along with others in his novel. His Ecotopian characters have a different way Text Matters, Number 12, 2022 https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.12.20