cologists deny that human beings have any right to control the planet (Gilliam 66-69).
Callenbach creates a society in Ecotopia in which human beings develop a different view of their relationship to the environment and put it into practice. However, this does not mean that the people of Ecotopia do not make use of the resources available. They do use different resources--the reporter notes that there are a lot of plastics but that they are derived in ecotopia from plants rather than from fossilized and non-renewable resources. These plastics are also biodegradable so they will recycle themselves over time. This is what the Ecotopians refer to as a stable-state system, one in which biological resources are used and returned to grow more (Callenbach 83).
William Grey notes that the normal view of human beings as in charge of the world derives from an anthropocentric view of the universe nurtured by influences such as the mechanistic universe of Descartes and the special place given man by the Christian Church:
Christianity has reinforced a conception of humankind as the locus of moral concern, and as the rightful
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