PT18.S4.Q14 - in 1980 there was growing concern

yhchoi1687

http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-18-section-4-question-14/
At first, I thought the answer might be (D) since before I saw the answer choices I noticed that there is a problem in assuming that atmospheric ozone levels are equal in every global region. So I expected that the answer must be something like the ozone levels are getting higher in polar region and lower in other regions so that global ozone levels are remaining constant.

However, the answer choice (D) is exactly opposite to my expectation, saying that ozone levels are increasing in other regions and decreasing in polar region. But can this undermine the government official's dismiss on the concern that "polar" marine life is damaged? If ozone level in polar region is decreasing since quantity of ozone is shifting away from the polar cap (as (D) says), there would be no harm to polar marine life.

Or did I wrongly catch the argument of the government officials? Is the argument of the gov't official simply that protective ozone layer over the Antarctic is not decreasing?

Matt1234567

This is an odd question, and like most older LSATS it's not as stringent in using clear language in conveying the argument.

The gist of the argument from the government officials is that the decreasing of the protective layer of the Antarctica is not a point of concern. Why? Because statistics indicated that global atmospheric ozone levels remained constant.

D) undermines the government official's argument, but showing that, sure, even though statistics indicate that atmospheric ozone levels remained constant, the decreasing of the protective layer of the Antarctica IS STILL a grown concern.

Dev Mock

I'm going to try and put my thoughts into words. The argument is that the ozone levels in the Antarctic are dropping. Some government officials believe that it is not really a concern because, if global levels remain constant, then certainly the Antarctic can't be dropping. The only way to explain to those officials that the ozone over the Antarctic is shrinking while the global levels stay the same is that, whatever is being disappearing in the Antarctic is being compensated for in other regions.