Self-study
The use of space-based satellites to study environmental conditions on Earth is an important development in the conservation movement's history. █████████████ ████████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ████ █████████████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ████████████
Summary
Space-based satellites help detect environmental problems early. It’s therefore unsurprising that environmentalists don’t pay attention to the potential dangers of these satellites.
Notable Assumptions
The argument’s premises explain why environmentalists might generally like these space-based satellites, but the conclusion then suggests that they would therefore not pay attention to the satellites’ potential cons. It does not explicitly state, however, why the pros of the satellites would lead environmentalists to ignore the downsides. We’re therefore looking for some principle that would fill this gap, and explain the connection between a project’s benefits and the fact that people therefore wouldn’t pay attention to its problems.
18.
The reasoning above most closely ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
People tend to ██████ ████████ █████████████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ███████████
This fills the gap in the argument and explains why the author suggests that environmentalists would fail to consider the downsides of satellites. Because the satellites help environmentalists in many ways, those environmentalists are likely to ignore potential negative consequences.
b
A negative consequence ██ ██ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ █████████████
Doesn’t lead to the right conclusion. The argument isn’t suggesting the pros of satellites outweigh their cons, it’s instead claiming that the pros lead environmentalists to not pay enough attention to the cons.
c
Technology usually has ██ █████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ███████████
Wrong trigger. The argument isn’t about whether technology generally has some negative impact, it’s about whether environmentalists will pay attention to the downsides of a specific technology.
d
Even well-intentioned attempts ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████
Wrong trigger. The argument isn’t focused on how well-intentioned the satellites are or whether, on the whole, they actually do make the problem worse, but is instead centered on whether environmentalists will pay attention to the potential damage this project could cause.
e
Attempts to employ ██████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ████████████ ████ ███ ██ █████████
Wrong trigger. This argument isn’t about the existence of unforeseen consequences or the general effects of technology.