Let's buy the world a Coke
A CONTRACT WITH THE EARTH
By Newt Gingrich and Terry L. Maple
207 pp. Johns Hopkins $20.
Reviewed by Bob Sanchez
The title echoes the Republican party’s “contract with America” of the 1994 congressional election, but the content contains little of that partisan freight. Instead, this slim volume attempts a balanced approach to protecting and restoring the world's environment.
What can America—as a nation and as individuals—do to preserve the environment? The authors bring their respective backgrounds to bear on the question; Dr. Terry Maple runs the Palm Beach Zoo in Florida, while Newt Gingrich taught environmental studies before his days representing Georgia's 6th congressional district. This gives many of their observations and examples a Southeast orientation without invalidating the underlying points. Only occasionally do their examples grate, as with the reference to polar bears as the “beloved icons of Coca-Cola television commercials.” Oh, please. How sappy.
In clear, readable prose, authors Gingrich and Maple focus on what America should do right now to address the world's environmental problems. They fault the dearth of national leadership on environmental issues and argue the need to address those issues in the 2008 election. Both parties, they write, are guilty; this is not a Republican attack on Democrats.
But 2008 is not our one and only chance to save the world’s environment. The time is always now, and that's when we should deal forcefully with the issues the authors raise. Still, this manifesto might become a perennial seller if it had fewer references to 2008. The next election will come and go, but the Earth's health will remain an issue long after most of the current candidates have been forgotten. The next President will certainly not solve all the issues the book raises.
The authors’ point is that a “healthy Earth is defined, in part, by abundant and healthy populations of wildlife.” To that end, high-profile animals such as pandas and polar bears increase public awareness about the changing environment; from them, the benefits trickle down to all of nature. (We tried a trickle-down economy, so why not try a trickle-down environment?)
The first chapter outlines the ten commitments of the proposed Contract with the Earth, which come across as an America-centric call to arms: “Mentor a New Generation of Environmental Entrepreneurs” is commitment number two, asking us to “reject the notion that free enterprise and environmentalism are opposing forces.” There is money to be made in conservation, they write, and a high price to be paid for ignoring “the warning signs of our troubled planet...Government and industry can act decisively when there is a demonstrated need.”
Commitment number five is less readily digestible than some of the others: “Become an Aspirational and Inspirational Nation.” Worthy though the sentiment is—think big, aim high—it feels abstract and platitudinous, unlikely to launch a mighty army to rejuvenate the Earth.
The book offers curious and specific examples of individual actions. Take children to zoos and butterfly gardens, they write, where “blinking blankets of color” help teach respect for nature and deepen public interest in the environment. That Dr. Maple also has a professional interest in zoo attendance supports the point that business has a major role to play in the authors' grand scheme.
They also mention an initiative in South Africa where children operate village water pumps by playing on merry-go-rounds. The authors delight in seeing this level of environmental creativity and use the example to illustrate that not all Earth-friendly actions need to be taken on a macro level.
Cleaning up pollution, inventing improved sources of energy production, reducing greenhouse gases, repairing reefs and wetlands, becoming a “fully recycling society,” creating “greener” and safer products, and simply recognizing that the earth is our home are all critical needs they spell out. If none of these ideas sound original, none of them are. But taken together as a comprehensive approach, they merit discussion.
Each chapter ends with several “talking points,” which revert to generalities such as the stated failure up to now of American presidential and congressional leadership in the realm of the environment. “We anticipate a return to assertive American leadership,” the authors write. These are thought-provoking but unsupported statements that apparently the authors hope advocates will bring up in public discussions. However, they slow the reader down; the book would be better off either with the points raised in the body of each chapter, or dropped altogether. The discussion material is better suited for a website or a separate series of op-ed articles.
An important lesson the authors want us to take away from A Contract with the Earth is that Earth's health should not pit liberals versus conservatives. We all live here, and we have to address the issues on the levels of both national policy and personal responsibility.
Only one issue seems beyond the proper scope of the book. “It is legitimate to question whether a country's environmental programs can be truly sustainable without a foundation of democratic institutions, values, and principles,” the authors write. They cite an increase in protection of property rights in China as an encouraging sign, but China is a long way from democracy by Western standards. Do they mean that the Contract with the Earth might not truly succeed without worldwide democracy? Perhaps so, but conflating a healthy planet with a free one complicates the solution tremendously. Suspicions about the nature of future Middle East democracies might make us wary of what we wish for.
As a general proposal for protecting the Earth, A Contract with the Earth is a worthy read for the healthy debate it should stir. That, however, should be enough for one short volume. The spread of democracy deserves a tome of its own.
Bob Sanchez is Associate Editor of The Internet Review of Books.