In the book The Future of Life written by Edward O. Wilson, he writes about two groups who hold opposing attitudes about environmentalism and writes about their feelings over one another. It’s almost like they are bashing on each other’s views on the topic. One group is completely for environmentalism while the other side opposes it. It is sort of ironic in a sense.
It’s mainly ironic that they each accuse each other of having their own hidden agendas to seek political positions. The critics believe that the environmentalists wanted to expand the federal government and create jobs for the “environmental” kind of bureaucrats, lawyers, and consultants. The environmentalist believed that the critics were just trying to hide the downgrading of climate changes and species extinction and that economic growth is the ultimate goal.
He uses humor in the beginning but very little. He points out the names both sides call each other. He states “Depending on how angry we are, we call them greens, enviros, environmental extremists, or environmental wackos” they can be very insulting to someone who was a environmentalist. Although it is they do the exact same to the critics by saying “That may be what they call themselves, but we know them more accurately as anti-environmentalists and brown 40 lashers or, more locally out west, wise users (their own term, not intended to be ironic) and sagebrush rebels.”
Wilson uses two main forms of satire in the book The Future of Life. He mostly uses irony in the argument between the two passages with different views and some humor when it comes to the names they use on each other