with short-term gains for investors. This book, Flattau’s fifth, makes valid points about how today’s


GOP has far less empathy on environmental issues than the Nixon administration did when it presided over the first Earth Day in 1970 and the landmark environmental laws that followed, as well as cre- ation of agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His timeline shows how the party continued to distance itself from the environment during the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s and the administrations of George Bush and his son, George W. Bush, when the idea of protecting public land gave way to short - term quests for oil. Flattau’s tone is sharp throughout, but especially the second half of the book, which suffers from a little redundancy and almost goes beyond the curmudgeonly rant of a veteran journalist. Not that Flattau should go soft. He claims over and over the Republican Party is doomed if it doesn’t realize how it’s alienating the country on environmental issues and rebrand itself. He offers a fair amount of prescriptive advice, probably too


much. But as the controversy surrounding the emergence of Donald


Trump’s candidacy shows us, there is unfortunately a lot of support among the populace for climate denial, a well-rooted disdain for government in general and challenges for both parties that likely go well beyond the environment.


Still, this is a highly useful and thought-provoking book, even if some of its conclusions have a cattle-prod effect. It makes a case for a systematic breakdown in the party’s sense of reasonableness over several decades, pointing out that Republi- cans have always been more focused on conservation than public health rules but how — over the years — support for almost all en- vironmental programs eroded. President Abraham Lincoln, Flattau notes, created a preserve


that became Yosemite National Park. Teddy Roosevelt, known as a robust outdoorsman, launched the National Wildlife Refuge System. Flattau recalls how the 1972 Republican National Platform “was filled with effusive praise” for the then-newly created federal EPA. But as markets changed, the science became more sophisticated and lobbyists wielded more power openly and via dark money. Government itself — especially the federal EPA, once again an easy political target for conservatives who want funding cuts — became scorned by the GOP. It’s not too late for the Republican Party to redeem itself, Flattau


argues; yet he sees little hope for that if it stays on its current path. Tom Henry is SEJournal book editor, a member of the


magazine’s editorial board and a former SEJ board member. He has covered environmental and energy issues at The (Toledo) Blade since 1993.


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24 SEJournal Summer 2016


Cloak and Jaguar: Following a Cat from Desert to Courtroom By Janay Brun


Relham, $12.95 (paperback) Reviewed by ELIZA MURPHY


From her first encounter with a jaguar, author Janay Brun’s fate became entwined with the endangered wild cat. Both sustained considerable trauma.


Macho B, one of the first jaguars to slip north of the Mexican border since the last jaguar was shot in 1963, was trapped illegally then killed. After Brun unwittingly played a role in the capture, she got dragged into a tortuous legal battle. Brun, a self-taught tracker, followed the elusive cat initially as a volunteer for the Jaguar Conservation Team before she was hired to assist the research team. During the project, she was led to believe the goal of the project was to collect data in order to protect the an- imal. Along the way, any doubts she had about the goal of the so - called “research” were momentarily put to rest by biologists whose objective, although concealed from her, was to trap Macho B. Brun makes it clear in this heart-wrenching narrative that she took orders from people who were not qualified to handle an animal with special needs. An aging jaguar, Macho B was especially vul- nerable to the ill effects of being illegally lured into a trap to be snared, left for hours to fight for his life in the cold and drugged in a haphazard manner.


The first half of the book describes Brun’s loss of innocence as she devotes her life to what she believes is a mission to protect jaguars. Driven by tenderness for animals, she courageously reveals her mis- givings while making astute observations of the other team members as well as the natural history of the desert. She reveals the lies and cover-up of the circumstances surrounding Macho B’s torturous snar- ing that led to misdiagnosed injuries and unnecessary euthanization. Brun raises issues that point to broader problems with govern- ment agencies mandated to protect animals, including leaks of se- cret information about animal locations that have led to their deaths by hunters.


Against a backdrop of increasing conflict along the Mexican


border, gutsy Brun ventures into places trampled by undocumented immigrants, drug smugglers and an out-of-control Border Patrol. She shows the damage to sensitive habitats caused by illegal road building by ill-qualified Border Patrol agents, and new paths formed by people trying to dodge them.


The latter part of the book sets the record of Macho B’s death straight, with Brun citing email messages, phone messages and tense interactions with various players.


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This book tries to help people think in terms of sustain- ability, recognize the unsustainable practices that are all around them and embrace sustainability as the only way to build an existence that will last.


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