Ecotopia 2010: An Ecological Experience, Please come by Bike
Geschreven op 18-3-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Agenda, VakantieEcotopia was an international gathering of young people from all over Europe involved or interested in environmental and social justice issues.
Ecotopia took place every summer since 1989, each year in a different country. It was organised by European Youth For(est) Acton.
A group of former Ecotopia (local and/or (inter)national) organisers and Ecotopia participants from the last 20 years, as well as people who got interested through the stories (and rumours) about former Ecotopias in the Flaeming Region (about 80 km south-west from Berlin), decided in Januar 2008 to take up the tradition, change it a bit and start to planning ECOTOPIA 2010 in their region. It is new insofar, that this time it does not aim only at young people but at people of all ages.
On 7 July 2009 the towncouncil of Wiesenburg decided that Ecotopia 2010 can take place on an area near their railway station (with direct connections to Berlin and Dessau). Ecotopia will also be place for learning, exchanging experiences and spreading information about environmental, social, political and other issues. A giant free floor and space for workshops, trainings, speeches, video’s, theatre, music, meditations and whatever connected in the widest sense to the theme of Ecology… (for example climate change, transport and mobility, GMOs, organic food, eco-building and sustainable infrastructure, global politics and global economic system, strategies for actions, experiences of campaigns, alternative media, migration, racism and xenophobia, cultural issues, and a few more…)
Ecotopia will of course also be a functional model of self-sustainable community that puts into practice the principles of an environmentally friendly life-style: waste recycling, vegetarian kitchen, consensus decision-making, the use of alternative energy…(as the word ECO(logical)(u)TOPIA already includes). Ecotopians participate in regional actions and clean ups, trying to get local people interested in ecological problems and empower local organizations.
Ecotopia is horizontally and self- organized; everyone is asked to take part in running the camp, solving problems and decision-making. And everybody is responsible for creating the program! Ecotopia will also be a meeting place from all generations and yes, that means that parents with children don’t have to worry. Also for the youngest generation there will be a lot to learn, to play, to enjoy….but also those who may feel themselves a bit older don’t have to be afraid to be left alone…
And of course on Ecotopia will have it’s own social currency (the Eco rate), nobody should feel be left out because he, she or the whole small family “earns” not so much money… money was never a barrier … for example especially one-parent-families on social welfare should be able to come… Ecotopia will be that what you make of it, everybody is invited to help realising it: by spreading the news among your circle of friends, by active participation in the preparation, following in what is going on, thinking about possible workshops and the infra structure, by coming in 2010 and bringing your friends…
What Ecotopia really will be, we will see in August 2010 and remember: nobody has “the” answer…(and yes, the name Ecotopia was “stolen” from the book Ecotopia written by Ernest Callenbach, published in the 1970’ties.)
P.s. Because of negative environmental effects of air travel (air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, damage of the ozone layer, etc.), one of the best ways to come to Ecotopia has always been the biketour. At the moment it looks like there will be various biketours, meaning you even have a choice this year. Source: Ecotopia