Self-paced
P1
With rapidly expanding populations, growing industrial development, and dwindling water supplies on national and regional levels, water is fast replacing oil as the world's most valuable resource. ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ █████████ ████ ████████ █████ ████████ ███
Problem ·
Water (the resource) becoming a source of international tension
Solution ·
United Nations
International Law Commission developed treaty structure for uses of international watercourses
P2
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Solution Details ·
The Draft Articles
Codify the principles of international water law; intended as guidelines for the creation of treaties between nations
SOLUTION DETAILS ·
The Draft Articles
Three precepts for water use: don't harm another nation; equitable and reasonable use; try to protect ecosystems
P3
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Conclusion ·
Critique of solution: Draft Articles are inadequate
Because they do not sufficiently contemplate future environmental changes
Premise ·
Draft Articles don't contemplate climate change
And the negative effects that will have on watercourses
P4
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Premise ·
Draft Articles are too rigid
If climate change alters the availability of water, the Draft Articles are too inflexible to respond to these changes, leading to unjust results
Premise ·
Solution to Draft Articles' deficiencies
Proportional shares of water; explicitly incorporating contingency plans
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
12.
The passage most strongly supports ███ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
It is possible ██ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ █████ ██████
Strongly supported. The author recommends that the Draft Articles should do exactly this: permit countries to adapt to large fluctuations in river flows. So she presumably thinks it’s possible to uphold the purpose of the Draft Articles while making these changes. In fact, one of the broad precepts of the Draft Articles is for water use to be equitable, and the author is concerned that without permitting countries to adapt to changes, the Draft Articles will fail to be equitable. So her recommendations would bring the Draft Articles more in line with their precepts.
b
Efforts to manage ███ ███████ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████████ ██████ █████████████
Unsupported. The author doesn’t consider whether the ILC has any role in taking regulatory action when treaties fall short.
c
The Draft Articles ████ ██ ██ ████████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████
Unsupported. The author says the Draft Articles do look at the effects of whole river systems across borders. That’s why they were formulated: to take an international approach to managing water resources, instead of having each country just focus on the portions of rivers that lie within its own borders.
d
Many existing treaties █████████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████████ ████████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████
Anti-supported. The author thinks the Draft Articles should do this, but she doesn’t suggest that any existing treaties already do. In fact, since the Draft Articles reflect existing treaties, and yet the Draft Articles are too inflexible, this suggests that few if any existing treaties are flexible. So if anything, the author would probably disagree with (D).
e
Countries that use ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ████████ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ████ █████████████ ████████
Unsupported. This inverts