Final essay!

Kristine Vulaj

English 1020

14 June, 2011

Professor Joe

Analysis Essay

Edward O. Wilson expresses his ideas through many rhetorical strategies. His point in composing this article is to stress the idea that conservationists and environmentalists try to gain political power to the point were they are “on top of the world.” They try their best to “expand government, especially the federal government” (Wilson, 153) to protect the environment. However, Wilson then writes from the opposing point of view saying that the critics are anti-environmentalists and that they do not care about the environment at all but economic growth. To sum it all up, the rhetorical concepts Wilson used in his article will be later discovered and be further clarified as to how the environmentalists pushed themselves to get their power.

Wilson uses a very strong tone in the writing he is expressing, I can’t tell if he is being sarcastic in the tone or if he is actually very angry. He has a strong opinion on how the conservationists and the environmentalists are trying to gain a lot of power they don’t need. They are trying to be the best in the world and he is not convinced they should. Wilson explains how he is “all about the environment and believes that specie extinction is bad, but conservation should be kept in perspective” (Wilson, 153). This is just human selfishness, are they actually concerned about the human specie or are they just worried about the environmental issues?

The rhetorical device Wilson uses a lot in his writing is aphorism. Aphorism is a concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief. Evidently Wilson is conveying he doesn’t want these conservationists and environmentalists to have all this power. Wilson is extremely angry that these “wackos” are trying to gain all this power. He is trying to make his point that this is just pure selfishness, they care nothing about the human species and care everything about the environment. They think that human species are overpopulated earth and that they should do something about it. Are these conservationists and environmentalists trying to eradicate the human species? So maybe what they are trying to do is not good after all maybe this is just leading to something bad and that is why Wilson is saying this is not good and they should not make laws and have this much power if they do not even know what there doing. There is a lot of sarcasm in this writing like when he explains to “relax your guard when these people are in power and your property rights go down the tube”.

They want to do all of this stuff so they can expand the government especially the federal government but they wont they just want to gain all this political power. They say they are trying to help the environment but they are just making it worse. Wilson knows this and that is why he is so against it. They are trying to do anything they can to gain all this power and nothing will stop them kind of attitude, but little do they know they do not know what they are doing. Our tax dollars are going towards all of this nonsense they want to regulate surveillance to create government supported jobs for their kind of consultants. If we keep worrying about the environment, where will this lead to? This will be the future setting up for failure. The economic development will not reach the peak if this continues. We even have a specific day dedicated for the environmentalists, Earth Day. Earth Day is intended to inspire and appreciate the Earths natural environment, not the other garbage like manipulating Earth with extinction of the human specie or any other specie.

Many are concerned about the extinction of human species but conservationists and environmentalists think this is not an issue it is just natures way. How selfish can you be to think that? I completely acknowledge where Wilson is coming from and why he is this furious about them having all this power and thinking they are better then everyone else and have all his false knowledge. So often we fret about what is going to happen next but we honestly never know, there could be a natural disaster and what do they have to say about that, it’s normal? What these people are actually trying to conserve is not what they think they are, they are making themselves look so bad and tremendously selfish, for sure, not the natural environment at all.

Wilson argues a lot in this writing, he clearly has a strong opinion on this. The one that caught my eye was “can’t sell to a developer, can’t even harvest you woodlot,” (Wilson, 153) the rhetorical device that he used a lot was syllogism he was arguing the fact that the Act will shut you down and the quote was supporting it. He contradicts himself in when he says “mind you, i’m all for the environment, and I agree that species extinction is a bad thing, but conservation should be kept in perspective” (Wilson, 153). I assumed he was all for it but maybe it was just the kind of vocabulary he used that threw me off. They hope to attract the media with all of this, and they will, but when the general citizens find out what they are really trying to pursue it will turn them off major. I hope they find what is best for both the environment and the human species.