In the afterword to the 30th-anniversary edition of his 1975 novel, Ernest Callenbach writes, "Looking back, it seems clear that Ecotopia was the first attempt to portray a sustainable society, and that this, more than its modest literary merit, explains its durability." Sadly, there is no false humility in that statement. Ecotopia (30th Anniversary Edition) by Ernest Callenbach, Heyday Books, 176 pgs., 2005. Ecotopia is ostensibly about a secessionist Northwest -- northern California, Oregon, and Washington -- founded on ecological principles. In this independent land, cars are abolished, everybody recycles, and sewage is turned to fertilizer. More fundamentally, Ecotopia is …

We Americans sure do like labels don't we? (And I'm not talking about food labels.) That's right, in addition to soccer moms cruising around town in hybrids and flexitarians buying their food stuffs at Whole Foods and the like, we now have "hygridders." What's a hygridder? According to a Wired article: ... people who are both middle of the road and off the grid. Across the US some 185,000 households have switched from the local power company to their own homegrown, renewable energy. The fastest-growing segment of this population - their ranks are doubling each year - isn't doing a …

How long could you survive without your car? For the many Americans who think nothing of driving 10 blocks to buy a gallon of milk, the answer is obvious. But before any of you dedicated pedestrians and die-hard cyclists start feeling smug, try this question: How long could you survive without talking? John Francis. Photo: Courtesy of Planetwalk. Chances are, nowhere near as long as John Francis did. After a massive oil spill polluted San Francisco Bay in 1971, Francis gave up all motorized transportation. For 22 years, he walked everywhere he went -- including treks across the entire United …

On a snowy winter morning five years ago, after four days of cocooning in the hospital, I walked home carrying my newborn daughter. I knew I was crossing the threshold into life as a mother, caregiver, and working parent. What I didn't know was that I was about to become a different kind of environmentalist. It took just a few blocks to transform my environmentalism from one based on vehement philosophical and political beliefs to one grounded in the humility of everyday experience. And it took just a little while longer for me, armed with a newfound sense of constituency, …

Most Mother's Day flowers are far from green Oodles of Americans will buy flowers for their moms for Mother's Day (that's this Sunday, you slackers), but not many will consider the environmental impacts. Conventionally grown flowers "are such a high-value crop that it takes a huge amount of pesticides to make them perfect," said Pesticide Action Network's Martha Olson Jarocki. And nearly 70 percent of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from countries like Ecuador and Colombia, where labor is cheap and pesticide regulations less stringent. Still, if you're not ready to think outside the bouquet, try buying …

Greens shun cheap air travel, point to impacts of industry A small but growing number of eco-conscious Brits are turning away from cheap airfares and looking to other means of transport or forgoing planned vacations altogether in hopes of reducing their personal environmental footprints. Overall, aircraft-related carbon-dioxide emissions make up some 5 percent of Britain's total, according to Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, and airline-industry emissions could double in the next 15 to 17 years as the industry grows. Says transport specialist Meyer Hillman, "We are going to have to face the fact that we …

Dear Umbra, As part of my water-conservation strategy, I'd like to reuse the rinse water from my laundry machine to water the native plants, many of them edible, in my yard. I've heard concerns about the soap (biodegradable) damaging the plants. There are also potentially some regulatory hurdles involved. Can you shed some light on this? Thanks, WendyGray All the WaySeattle, Wash. Dearest Gray All the Way, Congratulations on having a water-conservation strategy. All praise to those with a plan, and all praise to gray-water recycling. Gray water, other dear readers, is all the wastewater from your home excepting the …

Edward Norton. Photo: WGBH. The world has known Edward Norton as a neo-Nazi skinhead, a lusty priest, a warbling romantic, Larry Flynt's attorney, and Nelson Rockefeller. There is also a far less publicized role that Norton plays every day: a dyed-in-the-wool eco-devotee on the front lines of the renewable-energy movement. In 2003, Norton teamed up with oil giant and leading solar-panel producer BP to develop the Solar Neighbors Program, which aims to get photovoltaic (PV) panels onto low-income homes in Los Angeles. Norton has brought star power to the cause with support from show-biz buddies including Brad Pitt, Salma Hayek, …

Young urban professionals hip to green-building scene The trend now has a name. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Guppys: Green urban professionals who are young. (Yeah, we didn't say it was a clever name.) Portland, Ore., has become the epicenter of a movement by the storied "creative class" to find, build, or remodel eco-friendly houses. Guppys are seeking out solar panels, passive heating and cooling systems, green roofs, and recycled materials, and are even -- gasp! -- sacrificing square footage in the quest for greener dwellings. This kind of construction costs more on the front end, which at least …

Hollywood celebs travel to Arctic to raise global-warming awareness Matt Petersen of Global Green spends his time pondering this weighty question: "[I]n an age and culture that's celebrity-obsessed, how do you in a smart and savvy way use the celebrity to shine the light on the science, on the facts, and on the solution?" When it comes to global warming, the answer is obvious, isn't it? Simply fly Hollywood hotties Salma Hayek and Jake Gyllenhaal to the edge of the Arctic Circle, where they -- with help from some 500 Inuit villagers -- spell out the words "Arctic Warning" on …