Environmental columnist Edward Flattau was, so to speak, there at the beginning.

Not quite at the signing of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and 1970 passage of the landmark Clean Air Act ... but certainly pretty soon thereafter. Early enough to catch the bulk of what President Richard Nixon had decreed "The Environmental Decade."

A fixture in the Washington, D.C., environmental journalism community practically since the first international Earth Day, Flattau lays claim to being the nation's most enduring nationally syndicated environmental columnist.

A UPI Washington, D.C., reporter before taking over the twice-weekly syndicated column first launched by Stewart Udall, President John F. Kennedy's Interior Secretary, Flattau has been opining ever since. At one point in his career, though not recently, his column was carried in scores of newspapers across the country.

Flattau recounts his "40-year intellectual journey" in a new 435-page paperback Evolution of a Columnist, published by Global Horizons Press, through which for years he has been syndicating his column.

Flattau's balancing act -- between advocate and journalist -- is no mean trick, and not all may agree with the cover plug he receives from former Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson that he has succeeded in always writing "with the passion of an environmentalist, but ... with a journalist's reverence for the facts."

Make no mistake about it: Flattau takes no prisoners.

Initially distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and then, from 1977 until 1985, by Artists and Writers Syndicate, Flattau's countless columns offer a birds-eye view, albeit from an "inside-the-Beltway" perspective, of the U.S.'s four-plus decades of environmental law and regulation.

Like most good columnists, Flattau didn't spare words in dissing those whose judgments he questioned: "President Nixon had the last laugh on the country: Gerald Ford," he wrote in 1974. And two years this zinger: "President Ford is simply a Nixon without the curse of dishonesty or the virtue of above-average intelligence." And in 1981 this one: Reagan was rambling in his press conference yesterday, except for a few brief coherent periods when he was downright scary."

If you're getting the point that not all of Flattau's opinions dealt solely with environmental issues, you're right. But in was in the environmental policy area that he scored most of his points, and there too his views were consistently aligned with the liberal and progressive and environmentalist perspectives. He takes pride, in this, his second book, "in being prescient" and flagging issues "of profound importance" but as yet unrecognized by newspapers or society in general. "Yet, all too often, I experienced frustration with how little headway was made, despite the presence of known remedial alternatives."

The book itself reprints numerous extensive excerpts, or full texts, of many Flattau columns, in some cases along with a postscript to update them.

Writing four days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Flattau is quick to conclude that "we need to retaliate militarily against those who masterminded the bombings." He argues that the environmental dimension involves subsequently upgrading the living conditions of those impoverished, a step he says "will go a long way towards shrinking professional terrorists' pool of prospective operatives."

"While environmental enhancement has the potential to diminish terrorism in the Middle East, disregard of environmental concerns stands to exacerbate violence," Flattau wrote in that column, "especially as tensions rise over allocation of relatively scarce supplies of fresh water."

Flattau's regular bylined column is seen few and far between in newspapers these days, he says because he no longer aggressively markets it and instead spends time writing books.

"I am not aware of any regular nationally syndicated environmental columnist emerging to pick up the slack," he allows. "In fact, the only daily newspaper I see that regularly runs at least three or more environmental op-ed pieces (albeit from different authors) a week is the Washington Times. I find most of the pieces repugnant from an ideological standpoint, but at least they are paying attention."

Why no such regular advocacy column?

"My guess is the same old story," he says. "Editors failing to connect the dots between environmental issues and the daily quality of life, publishers' hostility to a movement that often puts off advertisers, a lack of understanding of just how pervasive environmental issues are, and underestimating readership interest in the topics."

For environmental columnist-wannabes eager to fill Flattau's aging shoes, his book is bound to provide useful and timeless insights. It will be of great value also to environmental historians, recognizing Flattau's indelible personal spin on the issues he addresses.

Evolution of a Columnist: The 40-Year Intellectual Journey of America's Senior Nationally Syndicated Environmental Columnist, by Edward Flattau, $24.99 in paper (1-4134-0354-9), $34.99 in cloth hardback (1-4134-0355-7). Available in major bookstores, from Amazon.com, or by calling 1-888-795-4274, ext. 276.