Self-study
Scientist: There is a lot of concern that human behavior may be responsible for large-scale climate change. ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ███████████ ████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████
Summary
The author concludes that the idea that human behavior may be responsible for large-scale climate change should be seen as an opportunity more than as a problem.
Why?
Because if human behavior is responsible for climate change, then we can control future climate change.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the ability to control future climate change is more of an opportunity than a problem.
The author assumes that it is possible to make future climate change less extreme than previous climate shifts through human control.
6.
The scientist's argument requires assuming █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
The same degree ██ ███████ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ███ █ ██████ ███████ ██████
Not necessary, because the author never compares the level of damage from human-caused climate change to non-human-caused climate change.
b
Human beings can ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████
Necessary, because if this were not true — if human beings CANNOT control the aspects of their behavior that have an impact on climate change — then the idea that humans can control future climage change is not true. We’d have no reason to think that there’s an opportunity to impact climate change through human control.
c
At least some ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████
Not necessary, because the author is not committed to the idea that human behavior has actually caused any climate change. The author’s conclusion is that IF human behavior does cause large-scale climate change, then it should be seen as an opportunity more than as a problem. But human responsibility for climate change is purely hypothetical — the author doesn’t have to believe that humans in fact bear some responsibility.
d
Large-scale climate change █████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████████
Not necessary, because the author never compares the threat of climate change to humans vs. other species.
e
It is easier ██ ████████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████
Not necessary, because the author never relies on any claims related to the “ease” of identifying the human behaviors that might be responsible for climate change.