https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-23-section-2-question-22/I'm having a difficulty accepting D as an answer for this question. Hoping someone can help!
My issue with this answer choice is that it seems to create a further discrepancy. Answer D doesn't specify whether Peacetime refers to before or after the war. It doesn't seem unreasonable to think that since the war has ended there is peace. I mean, absence of war is peace. All this answer provides is the general statement that during Peacetime oil production and transport in the Persian Gulf result in negative environmental effects. Wouldn't this create a discrepancy? If D is correct, how can there be less damage after the war than before?
Comments
What I did was break down what was happening in the stimulus into its basic argument structure. Don't let the background info get in your way of understanding whats going on. For example, the last clause of the stimulus is completely unnecessary and realizing that helps you strike off a couple answer choices very easily. The fact that the levels are lower compared to some temperate region really doesn't play a part in the discrepancy. In fact, I got rid of A, B, and C without having to even really put my conscious thought into them.
So,
-investigators found less of the pollution after a War than they found before the war.
-investigators found less of this specific pollution level after the war than before the war.
-the stimulus also mentions how the oil production slows because of the war. (we'll see how this affects the discrepancy)
How could this be the case when the stimulus tries to have us believe that the War somehow contributed more to the pollution?
Well, D does a great job of resolving this problem. The answer choice basically says, "yea a war may have some pollution effects. But, the war slows down normal oil production. In fact, when there isn't a war and there is normal oil production during any other time(peacetime), oil production transport actually has high levels of the specific pollution level and has MASSIVE oil dumping."
This seems to resolve the discrepancy pretty well.
I mean, in evaluating this question, I don't think it's proper, logically speaking, to say, "Well, shortly after the war, pollution level are not what one would consider normal peacetime levels, so D can't apply to after the war." Because, D doesn't follow that pattern of reasoning. D does not say, "If you do not have normal peacetime levels, then..." No. D says, if you're in Peacetime (which is either yes or no / black or white) then you have massive pollution due to oil. Period.
So I totally get what you're saying. I just have a hard time seeing how this resolves the discrepancy to ANY extent. D is a blanket statement. I mean, after we apply D) we can THEN make the common sense assumption that there wasn't enough time after the war for production of oil to ramp up again, but that's not the answer choice. I think in that case, it would be the common sense assumption solving the discrepancy not the answer choice.