Squeeze Me (Skink #8)

by Carl Hiaasen

The sitting President of the United States was a soulless imbecile who hated the outdoors but, in Angie’s view, at this point Teddy Roosevelt himself couldn’t turn the tide if he came back from the dead. All the treasured wilderness that had been sacrificed at the altar of growth was gone for all time. More disappeared every day; nothing ever changed except the speed of destruction, and only because there were fewer pristine pieces to sell off, carve up and pave.

This is Angie’s pained riff on what’s happened to Florida, but of course the same forces of commercial exploitation threaten important wilderness habitats all over the country. Some people think it’s a splendid idea to drill for oil in a national wildlife refuge, but I’m not one of them.