Self-study
Fossil-fuel producers say that it would be prohibitively expensive to reduce levels of carbon dioxide emitted by the use of fossil fuels enough to halt global warming. ████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████████████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████████ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that it probably wouldn’t be prohibitively expensive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels enough to halt global warming, as fossil-fuel producers claim. This is because the chemical industry had claimed something similar about CFCs, only to eventually replace them with substitutes at a profit once forced to take action.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that fossil fuel industries would be able replace fossil fuels with substitutes in the same way the chemical industry replaced CFCs with substitutes, and with a similar financial impact. In other words, the author assumes that the fossil fuel industry is analogous to the chemical industry in the relevant aspects.
13.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
In the time █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ████ █████████ ██ █████████
We already know there’ve been no equivalent changes in the fossil fuel industry. We’re trying to strengthen the idea that such a change could happen in the future.
b
In some countries, ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██████
We don't know if these reductions were to levels low enough to halt global warming. Even if so, we also don't know if these changes could be adopted by every country. We don't have enough information to strengthen.
c
The use of ████ █████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████████
We don’t care which is worse for the environment; that doesn't have any effect on whether the fossil-fuel producers' claim is likely to be true.
d
There are ways ██ ████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████████ █████████ █████████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
This affirms the assumption that fossil-fuel producers can do what the chemical industry did. Strengthening the analogy strengthens the argument that fossil-fuel producers can likely reduce emissions to low enough levels without suffering.
e
If international agreements ██████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██████
Even if the fossil-fuel producers could find substitutes, we still don't know how expensive that would be, or whether the substitutes would even reduce emissions enough.