April 22 is Earth Day. For this month, therefore, I'll be blogging about Newt Gingrich's views regarding the environment. I am writing this post in March, on a day before Super Tuesday has even happened. Consequently, I don't know if Newt will still be in the race when these posts appear in April. But I will still write these posts, along with other posts about books by Newt, for I consider Newt Gingrich to be a valuable voice in American discourse.
From April 1-21, I will blog through A Contract with the Earth, by Newt Gingrich and Terry Maple. On April 22, I will blog about things that Newt says about the environment in his book, Real Change.
For today, I'll post something from A Contract with the Earth that stood out to me, on page xiv:
"Environmental leadership requires the ability to look beyond stereotypes. Environmentalists are not exclusive to one political philosophy. It is quite possible to be a green conservative; indeed, a conservative philosophy is highly compatible with the mainstream, or entrepreneurial, environmentalism that Terry and I advocate. I am not surprised that liberal thinkers have also promoted green enterprise. Business is no longer regarded as an adversary to a clean environment. Rather, global industries are the source of brilliant, workable solutions to vexing environmental problems. There should be no exclusivity when it comes to the environment; everyone is welcome at the table, and everyone is needed."
Well said, Newt! If only we saw more of this in today's political discourse, which unfortunately demonizes people (and I am far from guiltless in this regard). If only we saw more of this approach from Newt himself!