Self-study
Some environmentalists question the prudence of exploiting features of the environment, arguing that there are no economic benefits to be gained from forests, mountains, or wetlands that no longer exist. ████ █████████████████ █████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███
Summary
Some environmentalists don't think it's a great idea to exploit the environment, because when the environment is all used up no one can economically benefit from it. Many environmentalists don’t think it's a great idea to exploit the environment because, economics aside, the environment has inherent value.
Notable Valid Inferences
Environmentalists take different approaches to rationalizing why environmental exploitation is bad. Some focus on economic costs/benefits, while others don’t.
8.
Which one of the following ███ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████
a
It is economically █████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████
This could be false. We know this is the opinion of some environmentalists—that doesn’t mean it’s true.
b
Some environmentalists appeal ██ █ ███████████ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████
This must be true. The stimulus says many environmentalists think environmental exploitation is bad because nature has inherent value, and they don’t consider the economic benefits/costs in their justification. We know these people exist, which means (B) must be true.
c
Most environmentalists appeal ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████
This could be false. We don’t anything about what “most” environmentalists think—we only know about “some” and “many”.
d
Many environmentalists provide ████ █ ███████████ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████
This could be false. While we know many environmentalists offer a noneconomic justification against environmental exploitation, we don’t know that this is their only justification—it could be one of many.
e
Even if there ██ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ █ █████ ███████████ █████████████ ███ █████ ███
This could be false. We know this is the opinion of some environmentalists—that doesn’t mean it’s true.