Author Description

Focusing the environmental debate on the principle of common commitment, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and eminent conservationist Terry L. Maple present A Contract with the Earth. Gingrich and Maple argue that environmental stewardship is a mainstream value that transcends partisan politics. Their thoughtful approaches to our environmental challenges are based on three main premises: environmental leadership is integral to America's role in the world, technologically savvy environmental entrepreneurs should be the cornerstone of environmental solutions, and cooperation and incentives must be dramatically increased to achieve workable and broadly supported solutions. Gingrich and Maple believe that most people are weary of the legal and political conflicts that prevent individuals and communities from realizing the benefits of environmental conservation. The foundation of the book -- a ten-point Contract with the Earth -- promotes ingenuity over rhetoric as the way forward. Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1994 to 1998 and is widely heralded as the chief architect of the Republican Contract with America. Since his days as an environmental studies professor, he has been involved in a variety of environmental initiatives. Terry L. Maple is president and CEO of the Palm Beach Zoo and a professor of conservation and behavior at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is coauthor of Ethics on the Ark. Callista Gingrich, former chief clerk of the House Committee on Agriculture, is president of the Gingrich Foundation, a domestic, nonprofit corporation founded by Callista and Newt Gingrich to support charitable purposes. She has also narrated Rediscovering God in America by Newt Gingrich.