Green Utopias explores these ideas of environmental hope in the post-war period, from the environmental crisis to the end of nature. Using a broad definition of Utopia as it exists in Western policy, theory and literature, Lisa Garforth explains how its developing entanglement with popular culture and mainstream politics has shaped successive green future visions and initiatives. In the face of apocalyptic, despairing or indifferent responses to contemporary ecological dilemmas, utopias and the utopian method seem more necessary than ever.
“The conclusion intriguingly chooses not to choose between the various ecotopian possibilities that have been sketched out in the monograph, not even between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ nature of the title; instead, Garforth argues, we must ‘greet the Anthropocene’ with a multitude of strategies ranging from hope and fear to apocalypse and adaptation. […] In such dire times, the thinking goes, we should welcome any sort of utopian hope we can muster.”
Science Fiction Studies
