Former Republican Speaker of the House Gingrich, teaming up with Maple (conservation and behavior, Georgia Institute of Technology), addresses environmental issues by rhetorically reprising his signature Contract with America legislative agenda of the 1990s. The new Contract with the Earth rests on 10 key principals: affirm US leadership on environmental issues; provide incentives to "environmental entrepreneurs;" move towards clean technologies; make government a facilitator for entrepreneurial, private sector innovation and private-public partnerships; become "aspirational and inspirational" by reducing the "arbitrary power of our federal bureaucracy;" mobilize the American public behind agreed-on policies; encourage scientific and technical literacy; promote non-partisanship on the environment; encourage strategic environmental philanthropy; and "enlist the nation." Gingrich and Maple defend and expand upon these principals and discuss some of the issues connected with its implementation over the course of the text. Annotation #169;2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Efforts to cleanse the world's air and water and to put a brake on calamitous climate change aren't exclusive to one political philosophy, Gingrich and Maple argue in this probusiness call for proenvironment action by politicians, corporations and individual Americans. Though the title echoes Gingrich's hard-right 1994 Contract with America, this more conciliatory contract reflects the former academic's penchant for bullet-point sloganeering, with its ten commitments call for politicians to abandon adversarial politics and for businessmen and conservationists to form compatible partnerships. The authors alternately brand their approach mainstream and entrepreneurial environmentalism mainstream because it rejects alarmist projections based on what they perceive as activist science and hysterical journalism, and entrepreneurial because they reject the notion that free enterprise and a cleaner world are opposing forces. The authors' concern about the future of the Earth is certainly sincere, but their prescription for action breaks shallow ground. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Including a foreword by noted scientist E.O. Wilson, former U.S. Speaker of the House Gingrich (Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America) and Maple (president & CEO, Palm Beach Zoo; conservation & behavior, Georgia Inst. of Technology) call for bipartisan environmental stewardship and propose ten commitments to ensure its success. Gingrich and Maple express that climate change and the destruction of ecosystems demand attention; but they believe that market-driven, entrepreneurial environmentalism, in which the government participates as a partner offering incentives, not requiring mandates, is the appropriate response. The authors attempt to broaden their base of support by defining "mainstream environmentalists" to include even those who may not subscribe to their green conservatism. Gingrich and Maple occasionally move too quickly from one point to another, citing interesting examples of private-public partnerships, some of which warrant greater consideration. Footnotes or endnotes would have been helpful. Still, this serves as a useful reminder that the debate about environmental policy is far from over. Recommended for all libraries. [Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger's Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, LJ 8/07, also stresses market-driven solutions to climate change. Ed.] Robin K. Dillow, Rotary International Archives, Evanston, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Foreword	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xvii
Are You a Mainstream Environmentalist?	xxi
1 Framing the Contract	1
2 A Contract with the Earth	9
3 A Matter of Respect	19
4 Missed Opportunities	37
5 Partnering for the Earth	61
6 Entrepreneurial Environmentalism	85
7 Environmental Philanthropy	107
8 Renewing the Natural World	125
9 Leading the Way to a Better World	153
10 From Many, One	171
Epilogue	185
Sources and Suggested Reading	199
Index	209

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