A Contract with the Earth.

Gingrich, Newt and Terry L. Maple. 2007. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 252 pages, ISBN: 978-0-8018-8780-2 (hardcover), US $20.00 (hardcover)

In 1994, during the US Congressional election campaign, Newt Gingrich and fellow Republicans released Contract with America--a list of 10 political pledges detailing the actions that the Republican Party would take should they become the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives. Contract with America is said by many to have been revolutionary, committing to offering specific legislation in turn for a vote, and a driving force behind the Republican victory. In contrast, A Contract with the Earth, a 10-part pledge for the environment, is likely to be far less revolutionary.

In A Contract with the Earth, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Terry Maple, former president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta, set out a 10-part pledge to "offer a new approach to the challenges of the twenty-first century" (p. 3). Gingrich and Maple encourage readers to join with them in advancing the ten commitments of the contract: resuming Americas' role as the environmental leader of the world; creating a context in which environmental entrepreneurialism will flourish; retiring or rejuvenating old technologies; transforming the role of government to facilitate private-public environmental partnerships; becoming an aspirational and inspirational nation; striving to achieve consensus on the goals for a healthy environment and the policies to achieve them; invoking a spirit of collaboration and cooperation; supporting environment through philanthropy and investment; and enlisting the nation to pursue proactive environmental policies and practices.

The theme of this book is 'common commitment', echoed also in the foreword by prominent biologist Edward O. Wilson. The book touches on, although none in depth, a broad spectrum of environmental problems and innovative solutions -from the loss of dolphins in the Yangtze River to Carnival Cruise Lines' partnership with the International SeaKeepers to collect real-time ocean water quality data. Unfortunately none of these examples are directly sourced in the book; rather, a long list of materials studied by the authors in preparation for writing the book is presented at the end. This lack of direct citation leaves the reader with no other choice but to simply trust the authors' examples and interpretations.

A Contract with the Earth is quick to criticize the doomsday scenarios of the earth's environmental future, and question the benefit of such an approach in solving environmental problems. Rather, Gingrich and Maple emphasize a democratic and entrepreneurial approach to finding environmental solutions, pointing to numerous examples of the corporate embracing of conservationism, and going so far as to argue that a new era of conservation has the potential to launch an unprecedented epoch of economic prosperity. In this context, they argue that America is strategically positioned to take advantage of such entrepreneurial environmentalism, and should be the global leader in "fixing" environmental problems. To their credit, Gingrich and Maple are none too shy in tackling head-on the complacency and divide in American politics and society concerning the state of the environment. They urge, for example, not to question the science as to whether global climate change is occurring, but rather to focus on moving beyond the politics to develop green technologies and implement new, bipartisan, and innovative solutions.

That being said, and although a very interesting read, A Contract with the Earth collapses under the weight of its own platitudes. For example, Gingrich and Maple protest that we are to respond to environmental problems "with the ingenuity and diligence consistent with our national heritage and our sense of duty" (63); that leaders should "reach out to every citizen ... to chart a course together" (14); that "the science of conservation should always be tempered by the art of compromise as we seek truly win-win, entrepreneurial environmental solutions" (pg 53); that we should agree to "elevate the environmental debate to a higher plane of civil dialogue" (p. 16); or, indeed, that adversarial politics must be overcome if we are to resolve environmental problems (p. 15). Unfortunately, complex environmental problems require solutions that are much more complex than rewarding environmental entrepreneurship, recruiting "an army of environmental foot soldiers" (p. 16), or creating a "strategic philanthropy." In this regard, A Contract with the Earth is rather void.

To end on a more positive note, A Contract with the Earth conveys in plain language many of our current environmental challenges and portrays a range of interesting and innovative public-private approaches to address them. Presenting the book as a ten-point contract is a provocative way to communicate the urgency of environmental problems and the need for binding commitments to take certain actions that, in the authors' view, will achieve both environmental sustainability and economic growth. A Contract with the Earth would likely be an appealing book to both government and the business community.

Reviewed by Bram Noble, Department of Geography and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan

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