Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and unusual weather

Question

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and unusual weather have caused many more natural disasters adversely affecting people in the past decade than in previous decades. We can conclude that the planet Earth as a natural environment has become more inhospitable and dangerous, and we should employ the weather and earth sciences to look for causes of this trend.

The conclusion drawn above is most seriously weakened if which of the following is true?

(A) The weather and earth sciences have provided better early warnings systems for natural disasters in the past decade than in previous decades.

(B) International relief efforts for victims of natural disasters have been better organized in the past decade tha in previous decades.

(C) There are records of major earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts, landslides, and floods occuring in the distant past, as well as in the recent past.

(D) Population pressures and poverty have forced increasing numbers of people to live in areas prone to natural disasters.

(E) There have been no changes in the past decade in people's land-use practices that could have affected the climate.

rahulagrawal51 · Answer

Between D and E

Negation of E weakens the argument hence E is strengthen the argument.
Ans.D

Paulli1982 · Answer

Could someone explain why it is D?

How does D weakens the conclusion (i.e.,  We can conclude that the planet Earth as a natural environment has become more inhospitable and dangerous, and we should employ the weather and earth sciences to look for causes of this trend .)

To me, that more people living in areas that are prone to natural disasters does not seem to weaken the conclusion of rising number of disasters and need of sciences to find the causes of the trend.

Please help provide the source of the question and official explanation.

Thank you.

elhudy · Answer

At first, I read it as you did. I think the vague sentence structure is a bit confusing. But...the conclusion is not a "of rising number of disasters" as you stated above. The conclusion is that "rising number of disasters  adversely affecting people ". It would make more sense if it was stated this way:
"Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and unusual weather have caused many more natural disasters  which have adversely affected  people  during the  past decade than in previous decades."

The conclusion is weakened because it is not that the earth has become more dangerous due to disasters which affect people occurring more often. It is that the earth has taken on an appearance of being more dangerous, due to people moving into more dangerous areas.

Does that help?

PSKhore · Answer

The most serious weakness to the conclusion is (D). If population pressures and poverty are forcing more people into vulnerable areas, then the increase in reported disasters may be due to more people being affected, not necessarily an increase in the frequency or severity of natural events.

Here's why the other options are incorrect:

(A)Better early warning systems would increase our ability to mitigate the impact of disasters, not make the planet seem more dangerous. If we're getting better at warning people, but still experiencing more adverse impacts, it would still suggest a worsening trend.

(B)Organized relief efforts, while positive, don't change the fact that the planet could be becoming more dangerous. It just means we're getting better at dealing with the consequences.

(C)Evidence of past events is irrelevant to whether the planet is becoming more dangerous now. The argument is about the current trend.

(E)If land-use practices have affected climate, that strengthens the argument for the planet being more dangerous. The statement makes it sound as if nothing has changed, which weakens the argument that people might be creating disasters through land-use change.

Source: AI Overview

kabirgandhi · Answer

Yes, but we know that the absolute number of disasters increased. This would be a weakener, if the argument just said that the number of people afected by natural disasters has increased, and thus assuming that number of people affected per disaster is NOT greater, number of disasters must have increased. However, when the argument concludes that the number of disasters increased, and that they have adversely affected people, without mentioning whether the total number of people affected has increased or not, D cannot be the answer.

Not the best quality question IMO

Samiksha2610 · Answer

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and unusual weather have caused many more natural disasters  adversely affecting people in the past decade  than in previous decades. We can conclude that the planet Earth as a natural environment has become more inhospitable and dangerous, and we should employ the weather and earth sciences to look for causes of this trend.

Here, to weaken the argument we need to take into account that people are adversely  affected by these natural disasters  than past decades, which in  option   D  is clearly undermined that because a lot number of people have to live in areas prone to natural disasters even less disasters could have an adverse effect on them.

BadukMagician · Answer

D weakens the argument because instead of weather being more inhospitable than before, weather has remained the same we've just started living in places that are more susceptible to adverse weather thus, we don't need sciencey gimmicks to determine the cause when the cause is population migration.

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and unusual weather

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Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and unusual weather

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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