ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to outline a new approach that will better vindicate that premise by building a new 'middle-out' political imperative that utilises tools based on inclusiveness, ethics, responsibility, economic value, private-sector action, flexibility and democratic principles. Environmental issues suffer from great disparity between their importance in the real world and their priority in American politics. A clean and conserved environment is a prerequisite to economic well-being. Environmental and conservation issues are also increasingly being adopted as priorities by religious communities. The moral obligation to following generations has long been a major theme of environmental thinking and of the conservation community especially. Across class and urban–suburban–rural divides, environmental values are part of family and traditional American values. The US environmental community arguably suffers from this phenomenon more than most interest groups. A number of tools can be employed to better harness market forces and efficiencies in pursuit of environmental and conservation goals.
